The Messenger, Georgia
April 14 2005
Zhvania’s death accidental, reiterates general prosecutor
Adeishvili comments on arrest of Zhordania, conviction of
Mirtskhulava
By Mary Makharashvili
General Prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili stated categorically on Tuesday
that the late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania died because of a tragic
accident.
He dismissed statements by the families of Zhvania and Raul Usupov,
whose bodies were found in an apartment belonging to Usapov’s father,
expressing suspicions regarding the deaths of the two men, and
concerns that the investigation was fair.
Usapov’s father has stated that the two men “did not see each other
alive that evening,” while Zhvania’s brother Giorgi Zhvania said that
no fingerprints of the two men were found in the apartment.
Adeishvili, however, declared on Tuesday “Usupov and Zhvania were
definitely in the apartment together.”
The general prosecutor was speaking on Imedi TV program The Firsts.
As well as commenting on the late PM’s death, he also spoke about the
recent conviction of former minister of fuel and energy Davit
Mirtskhulava, and the detention last week of president of the
Georgian Football Federation Merab Zhordania.
Adeishvili noted that Zhordania was arrested on charges of
transferring money from an unregistered Tbilisi Dynamo bank account
in Switzerland to his own private account. “This constitutes,” he
said, “stealing state funds.”
Asked by Imedi journalist Inga Grigolia to comment on rumors that
Zhordania was arrested because he had refused to step down from the
post of Football Federation president, and that the detainee himself
had described his arrest as “political revenge,” the general
prosecutor replied, “we have enough evidence that he has committed a
crime and we are obliged to bring this case to its conclusion.”
Adeishvili stated that paying money to the state does not mean that
Zhordania should be released, and added that he was not aware of any
appeal sent to his office by the Football Federation. He added that
prosecutors would try to complete the investigation as quickly as
possible so as to put the case before the court for consideration.
Turning to the recent conviction of Davit Mirtskhulava, Adeishvili
explained that the charges were related to the payment of USD 7
million to a mediator company which then disappeared with the
apparent knowledge of Mirtskhulava.
“Georgia had a debt to Armenia of about USD 4.5 million. Then somehow
as a result of negotiations this debt rose to USD 7 million. The
Georgian side paid this sum to a Russian firm which did not pay it to
the Armenian side, meaning that today, despite the fact that we paid
over USD 7 million, Georgia still has a debt of USD 4.5 million to
Armenia,” he said.
“The millions disappeared in the mediator firm and all the evidence
points to the fact that Mirtskhulava knew the mediator firm did not
complete the transfer of the USD 7 million to the Armenian side and
did not stop this,” Adeishvili stated.
“Any state official is obliged to defend the interests of the state
and to act according to those interests. We are sure that Mirskhulava
made a great violation in this regard,” he added.
Asked to comment on rumors that former high ranking officials who
have bought their way out of jail in fact paid much higher sums than
officially stated by government members, Adeishvili said that anyone
interested in this can get the information, “which is not secret.”
“Any high-ranking official involved in corruption will be strictly
punished, no matter what position they have. We will not step back.
We have also detained many people even from our authority. We will
continue this in the future as well,” Adeishvili declared.