Tuesday, 06 February 2007

GEORGIA AUTHORITIES RELEASE OPPOSITION LEADER IRINA SARISHVILI

Published in News Digest

By empty (2/6/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Leader of the Imedi opposition political association Irina Sarishvili, detained on Monday evening by officers of the Georgian Interior Ministry for “the import of great quantities of undeclared gold and cash from Armenia into Georgia”, was released last night. The release was preceded by hours-long interrogation, conducted at the Georgian Sadakhlo passage point (Georgian-Armenian border). Sarishvili told reporters on Tuesday that “the investigation has no claims to her any more”.
Leader of the Imedi opposition political association Irina Sarishvili, detained on Monday evening by officers of the Georgian Interior Ministry for “the import of great quantities of undeclared gold and cash from Armenia into Georgia”, was released last night. The release was preceded by hours-long interrogation, conducted at the Georgian Sadakhlo passage point (Georgian-Armenian border). Sarishvili told reporters on Tuesday that “the investigation has no claims to her any more”. According to the opposition leader, she “has nothing to do” with 300 grams of gold, found in the car in which she arrived from Armenia to Georgia. Two persons, accompanying her, were also released. The driver, the owner of the gold, is still in custody. Sarishvili admitted that the great amount of undeclared money, found on her (Eds: 58,890 US dollars, 7,000 roubles and 8,000 Armenian drams) really belongs to her. “I’ll pay a fine, provided for by laws, for the fact that I did not declare the cash,” she said. Sarishvili noted that she “was questioned as a witness”. Her lawyer said that Sarishvili was questioned “on the origin of the money and aims of her visit to Armenia”. Sarishvili, 44, had held the post of a Georgian vice-premier in 1993, but had resigned in protest against Georgia’s accession to the Commonwealth of Independent States. Later, she was in opposition to President Eduard Shevardnadze. She was in radical opposition to the present authorities over the past three years. She has been heading a charity fund of ex-head of the Georgian security service Igor Georgadze (since 2005), wanted on charges of hatching a terror act against Shevardnadze in 1995. (Itar-Tass)
Read 5372 times

Visit also

silkroad

AFPC

isdp

turkeyanalyst

Staff Publications

  

2410Starr-coverSilk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024. 

Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.

Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024. 

Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024. 

ChangingGeopolitics-cover2Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023. 

Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023. 

Screen Shot 2023-05-08 at 10.32.15 AM

Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.



 

The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst has brought cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.

Newsletter

Sign up for upcoming events, latest news and articles from the CACI Analyst

Newsletter