Court of Appeals in Tbilisi upheld on July 26 the conviction of two Israeli businessmen sentenced in Georgia for bribery charges.

On April 1 court of lower instance found Ron Fuchs guilty of offering last year bribe to then Georgian Deputy Finance Minister and sentenced him to seven years in jail; his associate Zeev Frenkiel was also found guilty in the same case and sentenced to six years and six months in jail. The court also fined Fuchs with GEL 500,000 and Frenkiel with GEL 100,000.

The two men have denied charges and appealed the verdict, saying that they became victims of the Georgian government’s “plot” aimed at forcing Fuchs to reject his multi-million claim against Georgia, which he had won in the international arbitration.

The Tbilisi Court of Appeals said on July 26, that “new evidence” were studied and “additional witnesses” of the defense were questioned during the hearings.

“The Court deemed the appeal groundless and upheld the verdict for both of the convicts unchanged,” the Court of Appeals said.