The court sentenced on January 18 Akaki Chkhaidze, ex-chief of the state-owned Railway Company and former President Shevardnadze’s close ally, to three-month pre-trial detention.
Chkhaidze faces embezzlement charges. The law enforcers claim that Chkhaidze, who was arrested on January 16 in the Adjarian capital Batumi, misappropriated 476,000 Lari (approximately $216,000).
Chkhaidze dismissed accusations as “politically motivated.”
“This is a political persecution. I will prove that I am not guilty,” Akaki Chkhaidze told reporters after he was brought in Tbilisi on January 16.