French 'Thief by Law' Sues President of Georgia

Kakha Shushanashvili, a criminal figure serving a life sentence in France, is suing Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili to demand the return of his Georgian citizenship, as reported by Sputnik Georgia.

Known in the criminal world as 'Kakha Rustavski,' Shushanashvili was convicted in 2010 by a French court for the ordered murder of another 'thief by law', Vladimir Janashia, also known as 'Lado'. In 2020, Salome Zurabishvili stripped a number of 'thieves by law' living abroad of their Georgian citizenship to restrict their movement across the EU without a visa. Additionally, if detained at the border, they would not be extradited to Georgia.

According to the Rustavi 2 television channel, the Tbilisi City Court has already accepted Shushanashvili's complaint.

Shushanashvili's daughter, Tatia Shushanashvili, informed reporters that her father has been serving his sentence in a Marseille prison for 12 years. He is in solitary confinement, and his health is deteriorating; therefore, he demands to be extradited to his homeland, for which he needs a Georgian passport.

The television report states that the presidential decree on the cessation of citizenship was based on the Justice Ministry’s conclusion that Kakha Shushanashvili acquired Russian citizenship in 2015. The lawyer insists that the presented document is fake since Shushanashvili was already serving his sentence in the Marseille prison at the time and was wanted under an Interpol Red Notice.

Apart from Shushanashvili, other 'thieves by law' have also filed lawsuits against the president. This primarily concerns those who were acquitted by Georgian courts between 2013 and 2018 but were nonetheless forced to leave the country after the announcement of the verdict.