Conviction was driven by ‘personal revenge’, political motives, opposition leader Elisashvili’s lawyer

Lawyer Archil Chophikashvili has claimed that the conviction of Citizens party leader Aleko Elisashvili was politically motivated, alleging that the case was driven by personal revenge and an effort to neutralise an opposition politician.

“Our position is that Elisashvili is an unlawful prisoner. He was convicted on exaggerated and artificially inflated charges,” Chophikashvili said.

He argued that a lesser offence had been reclassified as a terrorism case and noted that Elisashvili had been sentenced to 13 years in prison, despite the law providing for a minimum sentence of 10 years.

Chophikashvili also criticised the handling of a separate investigation, known as the “dogs case”, saying it relied solely on scent samples recovered underwater and identifications allegedly made by police dogs 10 months later.

He said proceedings in that case had been suspended and accused the authorities of failing to pursue it further.

“The aim was personal revenge, the neutralisation of an opposition politician, and retaliation for his assistance to Ukraine in its war against Russia,” Chophikashvili said.

He added that a Russian court had previously sentenced Elisashvili to six years in prison.