Salome Achba
On April 12, parties presented their introductory speeches at the trial on Davit Kezerashvili’s case, former defense minister of Georgia. Investigation accuses him of bribery and membership of organized group. The accused does not appear to the court and he is declared sought.
Before making the introductory speeches, the defense lawyer Shota Mindeli again raised solicitation to the court and requested to separate Kezerashvili’s case from others. This issue caused debates at the previous trial too because judge had upheld the same solicitation at the preliminary hearing though it was not reflected in the protocol. That means, the solicitation was not considered upheld officially.
Defense side verified their solicitation on the allegation that big part of the provided evidence did not refer to Davit Kezerashvili at all. The prosecutor did not agree with them and noted that big part of evidence did refer to Davit Kezerashvili’s case.
Judge Davit Mgeliashvili did not uphold the solicitation because it was raised through violation of procedural parties.
“In accordance to the procedural code, at this stage of case discussion the parties shall submit solicitations in written form. Since the procedural side was breached, it will not be satisfied,” the judge said.
The episode where Kezerashvili is blamed in refers to production and export of falsified cognac. According to the investigation, Kezerashvili abused its professional authority to support the aforementioned organized group and had accepted a bribe of 144 000 USD in exchange of it.
Prosecutor’s witnesses will be questioned at the next trial.