Deputy General Prosecutor Giorgi Janashia said on August 9 that Vice-President of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences Gogi Bochorishvili was arrested on charges of misappropriation of funds, in connection to the alleged illegal sale of a plot of land to a company for the construction of apartment buildings in 2001. Later on August 9 court released Bochorishvili on bail.

This arrest comes amid harsh debates about reforms in the Academy of Sciences proposed by the Education Ministry and opposed by a group of academics, including the President of the Academy Tamaz Gamkrelidze.

In an open letter to the Georgian President, Gamkrelidze warned recently that the Education Ministry “plans to dissolve the National Academy of Sciences under the pretext of the reforms.”

Education Minister Kakha Lomaia dismissed these allegations as groundless and said on August 9 that the reform envisages the transformation of the academy into transparent and more functional body, where “all those recently revealed shadow transactions” will be eliminated.