Ex-aide to Georgia’s de facto leader at risk of torture, lawyers say

Bachiashvili, pictured last month, accused Ivanishvili of being willing to sacrifice ‘the land, any interest for his personal wellbeing and security’. Photograph: Katarina Premfors/The Guardian

A former aide to the de factor leader of Georgia is at risk of torture, his lawyers have said, after he was arrested and deported to Tbilisi from his place of hiding in Dubai.

Giorgi Bachiashvili fled Georgia after falling out with the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chair of the country’s ruling party, for whom he worked for more than a decade, overseeing his personal finances.