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Former long-time and influential Minister of Interior of Georgia, Vano Merabishvili, was released from prison on February 20, Civil Georgia reported. 

Merabishvili, who served as the prime minister for few months before the United National Movement was defeated in the 2012 parliamentary elections, was arrested in May 2013 and charged with misspending and vote-buying; other set of criminal charges were filed against him later – all of them denied by Merabishvili as politically motivated. Merabishvili was found guilty and sentenced to prison terms in several separate trials in 2014.

Merabishvili told journalists upon his release that he intends to return to “active politics.” “I am content that I did not do any compromise [with the Georgian Dream-led government],” he stressed.

Merabishvili thanked supporters, noting that throughout the years in jail he retained strength and hope for the future to “keep fighting in order to remove this regime [Georgian Dream-led government] during this year.”