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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Daniel Boffey Chief reporter

‘I knew I would die in jail’: how the right-hand man of Georgia’s de facto ruler ended up on the run

A portrait of Giorgi Bachiashvili
Giorgi Bachiashvili fled Georgia two months ago. Photograph: Katarina Premfors/The Guardian

Giorgi Bachiashvili is on the run. The urbane 39-year-old slipped a surveillance team two months ago to flee his home in Tbilisi, Georgia, midway through a trial at which he was destined to be sentenced to 11 years in jail.

An Interpol red notice has been requested by the Georgian authorities asking law enforcement to find and arrest him over a $42m crime, and he further claims to have been informed by the intelligence services of two countries that there is an active plot to kill him. “Groups from the northern Caucasus, most likely Chechens,” he said.

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