On May 21, 2013, Merabishvili and
Zurab Tchiaberashvili, governor of
Kakheti and former Minister of Health, were arrested in connection to an investigation into alleged misspending of
GEL 5.2 million public funds on their party activists during the 2012 election campaign, leading to accusations of political vendetta leveled by the United National Movement against the Ivanishvili government. On February 17, 2014, Merabishvili was sentenced to five years in jail after being found guilty of
abuse of office, bribery of voters and inefficient use of budget funds. The opposition said it was a
witch hunt of the former government. In September 2016 Merabishvili was further sentenced to 6,5 years in prison on charges of ordering the beating of the opposition parliament member
Valeri Gelashvili. Government of Georgia in 2013 has officially invited
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights for Monitoring the trials of former high level officials. Monitoring group stated, that “Based on the above observations regarding specific fair trial rights difficulties – often of a systemic nature – it can be concluded that the respect of fair trial rights in the monitored cases was not fully guaranteed by the Georgian criminal justice system”. And particularly about the case against Mr Merabishvili has emphasized, that “In a case where the defendant was convicted of exceeding official powers, the court failed to say what the limits of the defendant’s powers were, and how the defendant exceeded those limits, aside from noting that the defendant did not have the authority to commit illegal acts. In order to assess whether and how a defendant exceeded official powers, the limits of those powers must first be established”. Therefore, even the minimum standards for substantiation of Judicial Decisions were not met. In 2015 report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) on Georgia, the CPT states that current condition of detention of Mr Merabishvili “could be considered as amounting to inhuman and degrading treatment.” On 14 June 2016, the Fourth Section of the
European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case
Merabishvili v Georgia that the repeated extension of Merabishvili's pre-trial detention "lacked reasonableness" and was exploited "as an additional opportunity to obtain leverage over the unrelated investigation" into the death of the former Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and financial activities of former President Mikheil Saakashvili. The Fourth Section of ECHR unanimously found violations of Articles 5§3 and 18 of the European Convention of Human Rights in the case of former Prime-Minister. The Government of Georgia appealed the case to the Grand Chamber of the ECHR, but on 28 November 2017, the Grand Chamber by a majority ruled that pretrial detention of Merabishvili, initially justified, became aimed at obtaining information on unrelated cases, including the one against former President Mikheil Saakashvili. Thus, the Grand Chamber completely upheld the decision of the ECHR Fourth Section regarding the case. By the time this decision was adopted by the Grand Chamber, in almost 60-year history of the ECHR there were only seven cases, including that of Ivane Merabishvili, in which breach of Article 18 of the European Convention of Human Rights was established by the section of the ECHR and the first one by the Grand Chamber. Ivane Merabishvili was only the third politician in relation to whom this breach was established by the Court and first case of this kind in the history of Georgia. == Release from prison ==