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Tbilisi: Georgian authorities threatened yesterday to launch an international manhunt for President Mikhail Saakashvili's arch foe after he surfaced in Germany and accused Georgia's leader of corruption.
The television interview by former defence minister Irakly Okruashvili injected fresh momentum into opposition protests - which have attracted thousands since Friday - calling for the resignation of close US ally Saakashvili for corruption and economic mismanagement.
"If Okruashvili does not appear in Georgia on the first demand of the Prosecutor-General's office, his 10 million lari (Dh22 million) bail will be transferred to the state budget and a search for him begun," Deputy Prosecutor-General Nika Gvaramia told a news briefing.
Outside the parliament in central Tbilisi protesters gathered for a fifth successive day and some demonstrators joined four opposition politicians on a hunger strike to press for the president's resignation.
Fiery nationalist Okruashvili first took aim at Saakashvili in September, alleging that his former boss had plotted the murder of a businessman and had overseen massive corruption.
Arrest
His charges, denied by Saakashvili, galvanised the previously disunited opposition but also led to his arrest. A few days later, looking tired and dazed, Okruashvili was released on bail of $6 million after retracting all his allegations in a televised statement.
On Monday, in his first public comments since his release from jail, Okruashvili said in a broadcast from Germany that he had been pressured into retracting the allegations, insisted once again that they were true, urged Saakashvili to resign and said that he was now a political refugee.
All lies, deputy Prosecutor-General Gvaramia said.
"Okruashvili's statement that he had been pressured while in jail is another lie," he said.
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