Athlete and businessman Giorgi Kandelaki, who is accused of smuggling a large amount of counterfeit alcoholic beverages and excise-free cigarettes, has been released from prison. The athlete’s lawyer, Gagi Mosiashvili, told InterpressNews about the above.

According to him, Giorgi Kandelaki’s restrictive measure of pre-trial detention has been replaced with a bail of 200,000 GEL.

For information, the Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance seized 75,137 bottles of alcoholic beverages and 318,000 packs of excise-free cigarettes, in connection with which 7 people, including Giorgi Kandelaki, were arrested. They were charged under Parts 3 and 4 of Article 200 of the Criminal Code (release and storage of excise goods subject to value marking, especially in large quantities, without excise stamps by an organized group), as well as Part 3 of Article 196 (production of goods illegally marked with another person's trademark and registered company name in large quantities), which provides for a sentence of seven to ten years in prison.

According to the investigation, the defendants had been forming an organized criminal group since 2022 for the purpose of illegally obtaining financial benefits.

They had arranged the infrastructure and complete technical equipment to be used for committing the crime on a leased plot of land in the city of Gori, where they systematically produced and stored alcoholic beverages subject to mandatory excise stamps - whiskey and vodka - without excise stamps, for the purpose of their further sale.