Court of Appeals Upholds Ruling on Opposition Politician

The Court of Appeals upheld the seven-year prison sentence imposed on Irakli Batiashvili, an opposition politician, and remanded him in custody on September 13. 

In May the Tbilisi City Court found Batiashvili guilty of providing ?intellectual assistance,? essentially providing advice, to a rebel warlord, Emzar Kvitsiani, and sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment.

Batiashvili, a member of the opposition party, Forward Georgia, served as Georgia?s security chief in the early 1990s. He was arrested on July 29, 2006 ? a few days after government forces cracked down on Kvitsiani?s militias in upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia.

Batiashvili denied the charges and claimed they were politically motivated ? a view widely shared by other opposition parties and some human rights groups.

Batiashsvili?s lawyers plan to appeal against the judgment at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights.

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