Tbilisi mayor, Gigi Ugulava said prosecutors’ motion seeking to suspend him from office and to set bail at GEL 1 million was “absurd” and “politically motivated”.

Tbilisi City Court is now holding a hearing to decide about what kind of measures of restraint should be imposed on Ugulava, who has been charged with money laundering and misspending and embezzlement of large amount of public funds.

Prosecutors filed a motion to the court requesting for suspending Ugulava, who was elected as Tbilisi mayor in 2010, from his office and to set bail at GEL 1 million (about USD 603,700). Prosecutors also want the court to ban Ugulava from leaving the country.

Before entering the Tbilisi City Court building on Monday, Ugulava told journalists that prosecutors’ motion “is as absurd as charges” against him.

“I am not going and I won’t be able to pay 1 million Lari for a simple reason – I don’t have it,” Ugulava said.

He also said that the prosecutors’ request to suspend him from office was “politically motivated” and part of PM Bidzina Ivanishvili’s attempts to “seize” Tbilisi mayor’s office.