Tbilisi Court of Appeals upheld on April 17 a verdict acquitting former defense and interior minister Bacho Akhalaia on charges involving torture and inhuman treatment of seven special task force servicemen when he served as interior minister in August, 2012.

Akhalaia and seven other co-defendants were denying charges, saying that prosecutors tried to portray extremely challenging training courses for special task force as inhuman treatment of servicemen.

Bacho Akhalaia stays in pre-trial detention since November 2012. He was acquitted in two trials and found guilty in the third one, but he was pardoned last year by then president Mikheil Saakashvili; trials into some other charges against Bacho Akhalaia are still pending.