Tbilisi City Court found Lawyer Giorgi Oniani guilty on charges of exceeding of official duties, falsification of evidences and political persecution, and imposed him imprisonment with term of 4 years and 6 months. Oniani was arrested in the courtroom.

Levan Mdinaradze, also known as DJ Rambo was one of the main witnesses into case of Oniani at the court trial. He claimed that he was put drugs into his pocket and was illegally detained several years ago at the order of Giorgi Oniani.

Members of National Movement Party and European Georgia protested over announcement of the verdict. They tagged Oniani as being a political prisoner. Representatives of the ruling team expressed trust to the decision of City Court.

“Unfortunately, Goga Oniani will not be the last political prisoner in Georgia,” former defense minister Bacho Akhalaia said in a statement posted on Facebook. “It is a sick decision of little and furious people to put Goga Oniani in prison,” former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili claimed.

The lawyers plan to appeal against the guilty verdict delivered today against Oniani. As Oniani’s lawyer Malkhaz Velijanashvili said, the verdict delivered by Judge Khatuna Kharchilava is biased and is not based on evidence.

“If the Court had objectively considered all the evidence, it would have been impossible to bring this verdict. There were articles where there was no evidence at all and in some cases there were only the testimonies of police officers, who were granted some allowances in exchange for the false testimonies. I think that the verdict is absolutely illegal and the defense will appeal against it in the court of Appeal”, said the lawyer.

Otar Kakhidze, a member of European Georgia said the party would appeal to international partners to increase pressure on the government to release Giorgi Oniani.