Tbilisi court arrests four officials of Georgian MIA in absentia

Today, the Tbilisi City Court has ruled to arrest for preliminary two months in absentia four former employees of the department for constitutional security of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) – Data Akhalaya, Soso Topuridze, Geronti Alaniya and Oleg Melnikov.

Data Akhalaya, the ex-head of the department of constitutional security of the Georgian MIA, his former deputy Soso Topuridze, and the employees of the department Geronti Alaniya and Oleg Melnikovare accused of excess of power and application to people of illegal deprivation of freedom; they are outside Georgia.

The court has completely satisfied the petition of the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia and ruled to put then in custody, their advocates have reported. They added that the preliminary hearing will take place on January 16, 2013.

The advocates assert that the case files have no evidence to prove the guilt of their accused clients, the "News-Georgia" Agency reports.

The imprisonment of Data Akhalaya was treated by his advocate Irakli Zakareishvili as a manifestation of processual violence and invited the General Public Prosecutor of Georgia Archil Kbilashvili to televised debates for the population of the country to decide by themselves "what the truth and what the lie is", the "Georgia Online" reports with reference to the "Iveroni" Agency.