Georgia Seizes ex-President Saakashvili's Property

A Georgian court has ordered the seizure of the property of former president Mikheil Saakashvili and his family after he was charged with abuse of office, his lawyer said Friday.

"The court ruled to seize property belonging to Mikheil Saakashvili and his wife, mother and grandmother but gave no justification for the decision," Saakashvili's lawyer, Otar Kakhidze, said.

"This is a political vendetta against my client."

In August, prosecutors charged 46-year-old Saakashvili and several of his top lieutenants with abuse of power and misspending of state funds as well as over the violent break up of anti-government demonstrations in 2007.

A court has ordered the self-exiled former president's arrest.

Saakashvili, who spends much of his time in the United States, where he lectures at Tufts University, dismissed the accusations as groundless and politically motivated. He has refused to return to Georgia to be questioned by prosecutors and says he has no confidence in the current authorities.

The property includes Saakashvili’s two-hectare vineyard in east Georgia and a small apartment belonging to him in Tbilisi as well as his wife’s flat in the capital, tiny plots of land owned by his mother and grandmother and his grandmother’s 10-year-old Toyota car, Kakhidze said.

"The sequestrated property has nothing to do with the charges brought against Mikheil Saakashvili," Kakhidze said, adding that he would appeal the ruling in the European Court of Human Rights.

A slew of Saakashvili's top allies have been investigated and some jailed since his United National Movement party was defeated in parliamentary and presidential elections in 2012 and 2013 by the Georgian Dream coalition.

The United States and European Union have voiced concerns over what they perceive as a witch-hunt against Saakashvili and his entourage.

"We are concerned by the continued investigations and criminal charges against opposition figures and the risks that politicized prosecutions would pose for Georgia's democracy," the U.S. State Department's deputy spokesperson, Marie Harf, said last week in a statement.

Fervently pro-western Saakashvili first came to power in 2003, after a peaceful "Rose Revolution" that led to president Eduard Shevardnadze's resignation. He proved to be a staunch U.S. ally and a flamboyant reformist who cut corruption, built new infrastructure and revived the country's devastated economy.