Georgian Prosecutor’s Office finds Saakashvili involved in cartographers’ case

Today, a court has resumed the consideration of a case against cartographers Natalia Ilyichyova and Iveri Melashvili, accused of transferring part of the lands of Georgia, including the David Gareja monastery, to Azerbaijan. According to an official from the Prosecutor’s Office, Mikhail Saakashvili, the third president of Georgia, will be questioned in the case.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that two Georgian experts Natalia Ilyichyova and Iveri Melashvili, who took part in the delimitation of the borders, were detained for using maps of the wrong scale when determining the border with Azerbaijan.

Today, a new trial of the cartographers’ case has begun on the merits in the Tbilisi City Court.

The Prosecutor’s Office plans to interrogate Mikhail Saakashvili, prosecutor Mikhail Sadradze reports. According to him, one of the important areas of the investigation is to identify “the person giving the orders.”

Iveri Melashvili, the former head of the government commission on delimitation and demarcation of state borders, considers the accusations against him and Natalia Ilyichyova absurd. Iveri Melashvili noted that investigators were interested in the role of Mikhail Saakashvili from the very beginning. “They wanted to attack Mikhail Saakashvili as if the territories were transferred under the previous government. The accusations are absurd, nothing like that happened,” Iveri Melashvili said on the air of a TV Company.

Advocates believe the cartographers’ case is politically motivated. “The case was instituted a year ago, before the parliamentary elections. And now, between the first and second rounds of municipal elections, hearings are scheduled,” said Giorgi Makharadze, an advocate of Natalia Ilyichyova.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 13, 2021 at 03:51 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.