The mayor of Tbilisi has been charged with theft and money laundering, in a case that is seen as the latest round in a fierce power struggle between Georgia’s president and prime minister.
Gigi Ugulava, a close ally of president Mikheil Saakashvili and one of the country’s most powerful politicians, was charged over alleged irregularities in a major land deal and the takeover of an opposition television channel and in the suspected use of state funds to pay party activists.
Mr Ugulava called the charges “the height of absurdity”, and claimed they were part of a plot by the ruling Georgian Dream party of prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili to seize political control of Tbilisi without elections.
“I am sure that there are no legal grounds whatsoever that may prove the charges against me. I am ready to face investigation, I am ready to face trial,” he said.
Several former senior officials allied with Mr Saakashvili have been charged with crimes since his party lost last October’s bitterly contested general election to Georgian Dream, and almost 200 people who were deemed to be political prisoners have been freed from jail.
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