Georgia, Tbilisi, May 22 / Trend N.Kirtskhalia
If the court grants the request of the General Prosecutor's Office on the case of the former Prime Minister of Georgia Vano Merabishvili, it will plunge the country into a totally new reality, President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili wrote in his statement posted on his official Facebook page on Wednesday.
'We have to understand that if the court grants the prosecutor's office request in connection with taking into custody Vano Merabishvili and Zurab Tchiaberashvili, it will be an extraordinary legal act', the statement says.
According to him a peaceful transfer of power through elections took place in October last year. "We received a historic chance to become a fully-fledged, successful democracy. However today we face a threat of transformation of the region in an ordinary authoritarian regime which no doubt will throw the country many years back as a domestic policy and in terms of foreign relations," Saakashvili said.
The president appealed to the government to "think very carefully about the results of these steps and not to put the homeland under attack."
On May 22 at night, the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia brought a charge against the former Prime Minister and General Secretary of Mikhail Saakashvili's 'United National Movement' party (UNM) Vano Merabishvili and the governor of Kakheti, former Minister of Health Zurab Tchiaberashvili.
The charges were filed several hours after the detention of Merabishvili and Tchiaberashvili. The former government members and close associates of the President of Georgia are accused of corrupt practices, abuse of power and embezzlement of public funds. The investigation is being conducted under Article 164 (bribery of voters), Article 182, part 3 (embezzlement or misappropriation of funds by using the official position which entailed serious damage) and Article 332 (abuse of power) of the Criminal Code of Georgia.