Georgian appeals court upholds removal of Tbilisi mayor

The Georgian court of appeals on Wednesday upheld a Tbilisi City Court ruling to remove the city's mayor from office due to charges of embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds. The court of appeals also upheld the Tbilisi City Court ruling of a 50,000-Georgian lari (29,240 U.S. dollar) bail. Gigi Ugulava was charged with embezzling and misappropriating up to 48.18 million laris (28.17 million dollars) of public funds to fund activities of his then ruling and now opposition party between 2011 and 2012. Gigi Ugulava said through his FaceBook page that he would continue legal struggle for reinstatement and that if successful he would himself step down from the mayoral office instead of being removed for a "harmful precedent" of removing directly elected mayor from office in the country.