Georgia denies bail to former PM ahead of graft trial

A court in Georgia has refused to free on bail former prime minister Vano Merabishvili, one of the top allies of President Mikheil Saakashvili, but released another senior ex-official ahead of their trial on graft charges, local media and lawmakers said.
A judge in Georgia's second largest city Kutaisi yesterday remanded Merabishvili in custody until his trial while ordering former health minister Zurab Chiaberashvili be released on a bail of just over USD 12,000, Georgia's InterPress news agency reported.
Merabishvili, a tough former interior minister who later served as premier, became the most prominent Saakashvili ally to be arrested yet when he was detained and charged Tuesday in the latest of a slew of investigations into former officials.

The former prime minister -- who pleaded not guilty -- faces up to 12 years in jail on charges that he illegally funelled money from a government employment scheme to supporters of Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) party in the run-up to October's parliamentary polls and misappropriated a luxurious private villa before spending state funds to renovate it.
No trial date has yet been set, local media reported.
The UNM lost the elections to the Georgia Dream coalition of businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, sparking off a string of investigations into former officials that Saakashvili has condemned as a political witch hunt.

Senior UNM lawmaker David Sakvarelidze condemned the court's ruling to deny bail as politically motivated.

"It is political score-settling against an opposition party," Sakvarelidze said.
Since taking power after the 2003 Rose Revolution that ousted the former Soviet elite, Saakashvili led Georgia on a strongly pro-Western course aiming for NATO membership that antagonised Moscow.
However Saakashvili's influence has fallen drastically since losing the parliamentary elections, and he increasingly resembles a lame duck, as he must step down after presidential elections in October 2013.