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France Shelters Saakashvili Opponent
French authorities have announced that they have granted Irakly Okruashvili, former defense minister of Georgia, political asylum. Okruashvili fled Georgia late last year. His untouchability is an advantage to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, since he cannot participate in the Georgian parliamentary elections next month. The remainder of the Georgian opposition does not present a real threat to the ruling United National Movement.
Okruashvili was a close advisor to Saakashvili when the latter first came to power. He was Georgia's prosecutor general, interior minister and then defense minister. In November 2006, however, relations between the minister and president went bad and Okruashvili was dismissed from his post. He founded the Movement for a United Georgia a year later and accused Saakashvili of corruption and of preparing to invade South Ossetia, create a schism in the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church and eliminate Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili. After that, Okruashvili was arrested, he disavowed his words and was allowed to leave the country after posting $6 million in bail.
Okruashvili repeated his accusations while in Europe and an international warrant was issued for his arrest. He was quickly arrested in Germany and deported to France, the country that issued his Schengen visa. Okruashvili was sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison in Georgia for “accepting bribes of an especially large amount from an organized group,” but his native country did not press especially hard to his extradition.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 24, 2008
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