The Tbilisi Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the court of first instance in the case of the accusation against the former Minister of Defense, Davit Kezerashvili, and ordered him to pay 5 million EUR in damages to the Ministry of Defense.
In the case of the so-called drills, Kezerashvili was accused of embezzling a large amount of money belonging to the state, using his official status. Aleksandre Ninua, the former head of the State Procurement Department of the Ministry of Defense, was accused in the case along with him. The panel of judges of the second instance in the Ninua part upheld the appeal. Accordingly, the Ministry of Defense was ordered to pay 5,000 GEL in favor of Aleksandre Ninua, in the account of the state duty paid by Ninua for the appeal.
According to the lawyer of Davit Kezerashvili, Giorgi Mshvenieradze, legal proceedings against the former defense minister were started in order to create problems for the TV company Formula, the founder of which is Davit Kezerashvili.
"As it is known, at the time, by the decision of the Supreme Court, Davit Kezerashvili was found guilty of embezzlement, while the article of indifference was used in relation to Aleksandre Ninua. Therefore, the court did not see the severity of the damage caused by them. Today, the only thing the Tbilisi Court of Appeal could legally do was to annul the decision made illegally by the Tbilisi City Court. When the plaintiff goes to court and claims that the other party owes him money to compensate him for damages, he is obliged to submit evidence that proves the amount of damages. Neither in the verdict of the Supreme Court, in which Davit Kezerashvili was convicted for political reasons, nor in any other document, it is not mentioned what was the damage that the Ministry of Defense might have suffered as a result of this fictitious crime. Therefore, it was not clear to us what the Tbilisi City Court based this calculation on and how it determined the number of more than 5 million EUR, which it charged both persons to pay at that time. Accordingly, even today, it is not clear to me what principle the appeals court was guided by, what document it relies on when it determines that a certain amount of damage has been determined as a result of the crime", Giorgi Mshvenieradze said.
In March 2022, the Tbilisi City Court fully satisfied the claim of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia in the case of embezzlement of a large amount of state money by using their official status, on the basis of which Davit Kezerashvili and Alexander Ninua were ordered to pay 5,060,000 EUR in favor of the Ministry of Defense. Davit Kezerashvili and Alexander Ninua were indicted by the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia for abuse of official authority and embezzlement of a large amount of state funds. The case concerned the transfer of a large amount of money in favor of the company GIRWOOD BUSINESS CORP, registered in the offshore zone, in order to provide certain services, although the Ministry did not receive these services. Based on the guilty verdict of the Supreme Court of Georgia on September 7, 2021, Davit Kezerashvili and Aleksandre Ninua were found guilty. According to the same verdict, it was determined that the Ministry of Defense suffered material damage in the amount of 5,060,000 EUR due to the guilty actions of the mentioned persons. Based on the decision of the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Defense of Georgia filed a civil lawsuit against the mentioned persons in the Tbilisi City Court, requesting compensation for the damage caused to the Ministry.
