Valery Gelbakhiani, who has been charged with conspiring to overthrow the government, has been remanded in custody for two months in absentia by Tbilisi City Court, the court said on February 2.

Gelbakhiani, a former head of tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili's election campaign headquarters, was suspended from Parliament and stripped of his legal immunity by Parliament on January 31.

When news of an investigation into Gelbakhiani’s alleged coup plotting broke on December 24, Gelbakhiani had already fled Georgia and was reportedly in Armenia. No information about his current whereabouts is available, but unconfirmed reports suggest he is in Britain, where Patarkatsishvili lives.