16:54, 8 April 2004

Saakashvili urges Abashidze to release former mayor of Batumi

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called upon Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze to release from custody former mayor of Batumi Tengiz Asanidze.

"Asanidze is not a politician or important figure, but he is still being held in prison in defiance of all judicial norms and procedures. We will not allow that a man be illegally held in custody in a Georgian region," Mr Saakashvili said to journalists in Belgium on April 7.

Tengiz Asanidze, former director of a tobacco factory and ex-mayor of Batumi, was convicted of economic and other offences in 1994. In October 1999, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze granted a pardon to him. But the Supreme Court of Adjaria suspended the decree motivating it by the "gravity of the committed offences".

On April 8, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is expected to consider a suit by Asanidze's lawyers, who demand that he be released.

Source: NTV TV Company