Ex-aide to Georgia's Ivanishvili flees country to escape embezzlement trial

FILE PHOTO: Founder of the Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili speaks after the announcement of exit poll results in parliamentary elections, at the Georgian Dream party headquarters in Tbilisi, Georgia October 26, 2024. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo

TBILISI (Reuters) - A former aide to Georgia's most powerful man has fled the country in the middle of his trial on charges of embezzling cryptocurrency worth more than $700 million which he says are politically motivated.

Giorgi Bachiashvili denied defrauding Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire former prime minister widely seen as Georgia's de facto leader, and said the accusations against him were revenge for opposing his former boss's stance on the Ukraine war.