Friday, 20 February 2004

SHEVARDNADZE SON-IN-LAW ARRESTED

Published in News Digest

By empty (2/20/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Police in Georgia have arrested the son-in-law of former President Eduard Shevardnadze on tax evasion charges. Gia Jokhtaberidze, head of Georgia\'s biggest mobile phone company, was arrested on board a flight to Paris. Prosecutor General Irakly Okruashvili, who personally oversaw the arrest, said Mr Jokhtaberidze had defied a warning not to leave the country pending the outcome of an investigation.
Police in Georgia have arrested the son-in-law of former President Eduard Shevardnadze on tax evasion charges. Gia Jokhtaberidze, head of Georgia\'s biggest mobile phone company, was arrested on board a flight to Paris. Prosecutor General Irakly Okruashvili, who personally oversaw the arrest, said Mr Jokhtaberidze had defied a warning not to leave the country pending the outcome of an investigation. \"No-one knew whether he would return to Georgia,\" he told a local TV station. But a senior employee at Mr Jokhtaberidze\'s company, Magti, said he was on a business trip. Georgia\'s new president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has launched a campaign against corruption after his landslide victory in last month\'s elections. \"Don\'t take bribes and don\'t give jobs to your relatives,\" was Mr Saakashvili\'s first advice to his new team. Mr Shevardnadze, whom Mr Saakashvili helped topple with a wave of protests, was promised immunity from prosecution in return for his resignation. Natalia Antelava in Georgia\'s capital, Tbilisi, says Shevardnadze-era officials are arrested almost daily - including some former high-ranking ministers. The arrest of the former president\'s son-in-law shows that the authorities are determined to take their campaign to the highest levels, she says. (BBC)
Read 2199 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