Imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili has requested current president Salome Zurabishvili to lift the classified status to the funds allocated back in 2013 ‘to prove that the money was allocated in accordance with the law.’
It is one of the cases Saakashvili faces charges along with former head of the Special State Protection Service of Georgia, Teimuraz Janashia.
Saakashvili claims that by the move Zurabishvili will save Janashia from up to 11 years in prison.
“In reality me and Janashia face charges not for how the money was spent, but for the procedures the money was allocated,” Saakashvili said.
The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office says that per the agreement between Saakashvili and Janashia, between 2009 and 2013, the state funds were used for expensive procedures and clothes for Saakashvili and his close circle, including botox procedures.
The Prosecutor’s Office says that the money was cut from the budget of the state agency in a classified manner.
Saakashvili has been charged with embezzlement of almost nine million GEL in the case.
