A group of opposition lawmakers accused the Financial Police and General Prosecutor’s Office on December 18 of abusing the property rights of entrepreneurs.

Non-partisan opposition MP Koka Guntsadze said that recently a number of businessmen have had to “voluntarily” hand over their property, mainly office space in downtown Tbilisi, to the state following pressure from the authorities.

Tbilisi-based Imedi television’s weekly program Droeba (Times) on December 17 showed the owners of several restaurants located in downtown Tbilisi who claimed that they had to hand over the spaces occupied by their businesses to the state.

“[Prosecutor-General Zurab] Adeishvili’s clan and some other clans are involved in these cases of misappropriation,” MP Kakha Kukava of the opposition Conservative Party said on December 18.

Opposition lawmakers also said that they will develop a draft law on an arbitration system which will be designed to protect businessmen’s rights in disputes with the state.

A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which visited Tbilisi on December 2-10, called on the Georgian authorities to accelerate structural reforms, “especially in those areas pertaining to stronger property rights.”