MERABISHVILI v. GEORGIA

Communicated on 2 April 2014 FOURTH SECTIONApplication no. 72508/13Ivane Merabishviliagainst Georgialodged on 20 November 2013STATEMENT OF FACTSThe applicant, Mr Ivane Merabishvili, is a Georgian national, who was born in 1968 and lives in Tbilisi. He is represented before the Court by Mr O. Kakhidze, a lawyer practising in Tbilisi.A.  The circumstances of the case1.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.1. Criminal Proceedings2.  Prior to the parliamentary election of 1 October 2012 which entailed the change of government, the applicant, one of the leaders of the then ruling party United National Movement (UNM), exercised, for several months in 2012, the function of the Prime Minister of Georgia. Prior to that, between 2005 and 2012, he had held the post of the Minister of the Interior.3.  On 15 October 2012, after the political coalition Ge …