The Tbilisi City Court reviewed the evidence presented by the Prosecutor’s Office and found former Military Police Chief Megis Kardava guilty of misappropriating and embezzling 768,107 GEL from the state budget by abusing his official position.

The evidence examined at the trial established that on May 22, 2012, the head of the Military Police Department, M. Kardava, wrote a letter to the then Minister of Defense, Bachana Akhalaia, requesting the allocation of 330,000 GEL to the Military Police Department under “Hidden Expenses” article. With the consent of the Minister, the amount transferred to the Military Police Department’s account was withdrawn from one of the banks on the instructions of M. Kardava and converted, after which Kardava illegally appropriated 200,000 USD.

The examined evidence also established that the accused, with the assistance of other high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense, from November 16, 2011 to August 2012, allegedly for operational purposes, misappropriated and embezzled a total of 768,107 GEL.

In order to cover up the facts of misappropriation and embezzlement of funds belonging to the Ministry of Defense, fictitious documentation was prepared on the instructions of Megis Kardava, allegedly on the spending of funds for operational-investigative activities by a unit of the Military Police Department sent to the Republic of Afghanistan, thereby writing off the aforementioned funds and adjusting the accounting.

The accused was charged with 10 counts under Article 182, Part 2, Subparagraphs “a” and “d” and Part 3, Subparagraph “b” (misappropriation and embezzlement of a large amount of money by a group committed by prior agreement through abuse of official position) of the Criminal Code of Georgia.

The Tbilisi City Court found the defendant guilty of the charges and sentenced him to 11 years in prison. In accordance with the Law of Georgia on Amnesty of December 28, 2012, the sentence was halved and the sentence was reduced to 5 years and 6 months in prison.