"I am not going to dismiss Vano Merabishvili from his post because he is a very good minister," Mikheil Saakashvili said in a statement, adding that Georgia's law-enforcement agencies were now more efficient than ever before.
Merabishvili has come under increasing pressure following the murder in January of Sandro Girgvliani, a 28-year-old manager at United Georgian Bank. Girgvliani's family, opposition movements and non-governmental organizations have accused top Interior Ministry officials of complicity in the murder, and demanded Merabishvili's dismissal.
Although the murder was solved and some ministry officials arrested, the opposition and the family continue demanding that Merabishvili be fired and the "contractors of the murder, rather than the perpetrators, be punished."
