Former head of Georgia's MIA accused under Girgvliani's murder case

Vano Merabishvili, the former Prime Minister of Georgia and now the Secretary General of the pro-presidential party "United National Movement", has been charged with abuse of power in the murder case of a bank employee Sandro Girgvliani, said the Public Prosecutor Shota Tkheshelashvili.

The new Merabishvili's charge has to do with the falsification of the inquiry and obstructing to revealing the truth in the murder case of Sandro Girgvliani. Shota Tkheshelashvili told about it at briefing on June 24 at the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Georgia.

The recent developments in Georgia look very much like a nicely elaborated play, where all the heroes act strictly according to the plan, said Gela Vasadze, a political analyst and co-founder of NGO "Free Zone".

In his opinion, the current Georgian leadership is trying to ban the only country's real opposition – the "United National Movement" (UNM) Party.

"Merabishvili in this case is only one of the figures. The aim is to create a feeling of the criminal nature of the whole previous government, the crime route, which was a pro-Western, by the way, dissolve parliament and destroy the UNM," Mr Vasadze gave his point of view.

Vano Merabishvili refuses to plead guilty, his lawyer Georgiy Chiviashvili said today.