Georgian Leader Addicted to Power, Ex-Minister Says (Update1)

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Irakli Okruashvili, an ally turned critic of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, said the head of state is addicted to power and will do ``everything'' to assure victory in a parliamentary election in May.

Saakashvili ``will do everything to get a majority'' in the parliamentary contest, Okruashvili, a former defense minister, said in an interview in Paris on Feb. 15. ``Just as a drug user is dependent on more drugs, so Saakashvili seeks more power.''

Marika Verlashvili, a spokeswoman for Saakashvili, declined to comment on Okruashvili's comments.

The Georgian opposition is calling for power to be shifted from the presidency to parliament, restoring a balance that existed before 2003, when Saakashvili first took office, Okruashvili said. Saakashvili won a second term in the former Soviet republic's Jan. 5 presidential election, which the opposition insists was rigged.

Okruashvili, 34, who had been a close associate of Saakashvili since 1999, faces charges in Georgia related to his tenure as minister from 2004 to 2006, including extortion and money laundering. He says the accusations are ``100 percent manipulation.''

`Right-Hand Man'

Georgian police arrested Okruashvili on Sept. 27, two days after he went on television and accused the president of organizing political assassinations. On Oct. 8, he was freed on bail after retracting his accusation in what he called a `Soviet-style confession.'' He said he was subjected to intense ``psychological pressure.''

Okruashvili's arrest energized the opposition and led in part to a series of demonstrations in early November that ended in violent clashes between protesters and police.

Okruashvili said his legal problems began after he entered the opposition to Saakashvili. ``For seven years, I was working with him, I was called his right-hand man,'' he said, ``Then when I went to the opposition, he said I was corrupt.''

He said the West, and especially the U.S., discredited itself by declaring Georgia's presidential election free and fair.

``The Georgian people know what was going on,'' he said. ``If the election conditions in May are the same, then the West will fully discredit itself, which is something I don't want.''

Extradition Order

On Nov. 1, Okruashvili left the country, escorted by Georgian authorities who provided him with a French visa. He stopped in Germany, where he was arrested on a Georgian warrant. A German court suspended extradition proceedings, and sent Okruashvili to France, where he again faces an extradition hearing and has applied for asylum.

``The whole procedure shows that I will never have a chance to show in a Georgian court that I am innocent,'' Okruashvili said. He said he hopes to block a Georgian extradition order, and to obtain political asylum in France in ``two or three weeks.'' He has continued his political activities from Paris, supporting an opposition demonstration in Tbilisi on Feb. 15.

Okruashvili described as ``very strange'' the death in England last week of Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, who ran against Saakashvili in the presidential election, at the age of 52.

Okruashvili said in September last year that Saakashvili had asked him to kill Patarkatsishvili. The president said on Sept. 29 that Okruashvili was ``a liar.''

Coup Charge

U.K. police said Patarkatsishvili appeared to have died from natural causes. The results of toxicology tests will be released in a few weeks.

The death of Patarkatsishvili, was ``not only a loss for the opposition, but also for Georgia,'' Okruashvili said.

Georgian prosecutors accused Patarkatsishvili of plotting a coup against the Georgian government. Okruashvili said the charges were the result of the businessman's opposition to Saakashvili.

``All the trouble Patarkatsishvili had was because he criticized Saakashvili's wrong policy,'' he said. ``Saakashvili was not paying attention, and was getting further and further from reality,'' he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Celestine Bohlen in Paris at cbohlen1@bloomberg.net