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Paris court rules against Okruashvili's extradition to Georgia

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A Paris court of appeals ruled on Wednesday against the extradition of Georgian opposition leader, Irakly Okruashvili, accused by Tbilisi of corruption.
PARIS, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - A Paris court of appeals ruled on Wednesday against the extradition of Georgian opposition leader, Irakly Okruashvili, accused by Tbilisi of corruption.

France granted political asylum to Okruashvili, a former Georgian defense minister, in April. An earlier Georgia extradition request was turned down in March.

Last September, Okruashvili accused his former ally, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, of setting up corrupt commercial deals to benefit his family, plotting to seize Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia by force, and ordering the assassination of Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili.

Georgian prosecutors subsequently arrested and charged Okruashvili with abuse of office, money laundering, and corruption. After being released, the opposition leader fled the country. He was consequently tried in absentia and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Okruashvili was arrested in Germany last November at the request of Georgian authorities and later extradited to France, where he had received his Schengen zone visa, in line with Schengen guidelines.

A Paris court released the former minister on bail on January 30.

Patarkatsishvili, who financed the opposition and had planned to run in the January 5 presidential polls which returned Saakashvili to power, died in February this year at his home near London. His death was not treated as suspicious by the British authorities.

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