The former mayor of Lentekhi Municipality, Gia Oniani, and the heads of the architecture and supervision departments: Nugzar Tvildiani and Giorgi Gulbani, have been arrested on charges of abuse of office. The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has released information about the above.

“The officers of the Western Georgia Regional Prosecutor’s Office have arrested the former mayor of Lentekhi Municipality, Gia Oniani, and the heads of the architecture and supervision services: Nugzar Tvildiani and Giorgi Gulbani, on the fact of abuse of official authority.

The investigation into the case revealed that Gia Oniani, after being elected mayor of Lentekhi Municipality, purchased a plot of land and ordered a construction project for the purpose of building a hotel. Gia Oniani, through a company registered in his wife’s name, submitted the project, which did not meet the requirements of construction norms, namely the area of ​​the development did not comply with the relevant coefficient, to the Architecture Service of the Lentekhi Municipality City Hall, which was headed by Nugzar Tvildiani.

In the process of issuing the permit, Gia Oniani and Nugzar Tvildiani abused their official authority, did not take into account the requirements of the Decree of the Government of Georgia “On the Basic Provisions for the Regulation of the Use and Development of Territories” that is mandatory for the territory of the municipality, as well as the Spatial Planning, Architectural and Construction Code, the fact of contradiction with the coefficient in the area of ​​​​the development, the presence of a cultural heritage monument at the construction site, and despite the fact that they had not agreed on the construction issue with the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Protection, construction permits were issued that were not in accordance with the legislation under such conditions.

During the construction of the hotel, the supervision service, headed by Giorgi Gulbani, the husband of Gia Oniani's wife's sister, instead of stopping the construction carried out in violation of the requirements of the law, which went beyond the boundaries of the construction site and continued within the boundaries of land plots owned by private individuals and the state, as well as exercising proper control over the protection of the nearby cultural heritage monument, allowed Gia Oniani to continue the illegal construction. The aforementioned actions of the defendants essentially violated the legitimate interest of the state," reads the information.