TBILISI, November 20 – Tbilisi’s City Court has sentenced former Georgian defense minister Irakli Okruashvili to seven years in prison over a controversial 2004 police killing that shook the country during the early days of the Saakashvili administration.
In the same ruling Wednesday, the court decided that ex-chief prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili, accused in the same case, is to walk free. This sparked a political firestorm and emotional reactions from the victim’s family and opposition figures.
Okruashvili was convicted of abuse of power for allegedly ordering police officials to stage the scene after a patrol officer accidentally shot 19-year-old Buta Robakidze during a late-night stop-and-search in central Tbilisi in November 2004. Prosecutors say Okruashvili instructed officials to plant firearms in the victim’s car and claim the group had attacked police as an armed gang. The alleged cover-up cast a long shadow over Georgia’s early post-revolution years.
The ex-minister’s sentence was reduced to five years and three months under a 2012 amnesty law and by crediting ten months already served in pre-trial detention.
Okruashvili’s lawyer has vowed to appeal the verdict, arguing that the conviction was based solely on the reinterpretation of a statement by a deceased police official, who had changed his testimony multiple times over the years. “You can’t convict someone based on ‘this is how I interpreted it,’” the lawyer said.
Meanwhile, Adeishvili was acquitted due to lack of evidence. His lawyer, Keti Chomakhashvili, said the judge agreed there was no legal basis for conviction, a ruling she described as a “great relief”.
That acquittal has outraged the victim’s mother, Ia Metreveli, who for years led public campaigns for justice. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, she expressed shock, saying Adeishvili played an even larger role in the original cover-up as Georgia’s chief prosecutor at the time. “He knew everything,” she said, calling on the courts to reverse the acquittal and sentence him too.
Metreveli welcomed Okruashvili’s conviction, albeit after two decades. “Better late than never,” she said. “But justice must go all the way”.
Reactions to the verdict have further polarized Georgia’s political scene. Simon Janashia of the Freedom Square party questioned the timing of the case and suggested it was politically motivated. “The question is, why now?” he asked. “If even a known criminal is convicted in this court system, people will still ask whether it was fair,” he said, pointing to widespread mistrust in Georgia’s judiciary.
Former president Mikheil Saakashvili also weighed in from prison, where he and Okruashvili are reportedly being held in close proximity. In a Facebook post, Saakashvili said Okruashvili had at one point betrayed him but deserved solidarity now. “No one wins by making deals with evil,” he wrote, adding that he hoped Okruashvili would be released soon and reunited with his family.
Paata Davitaia of the European Democrats party went further, calling the entire case a sign of “selective justice” and labeling it “damaging to the state.” He noted that the prosecution of Okruashvili alone, while letting the prosecutor general go free, raises troubling questions.
Georgia’s prosecutor’s office stated it would appeal Adeishvili’s acquittal.
