| Davit Kezerashvili დავით კეზერაშვილი |
|
|---|---|
| Minister of Defense of Georgia | |
| In office November 10, 2006 – December 5, 2008 |
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| Preceded by | Irakli Okruashvili |
| Succeeded by | Vasil Sikharulidze |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 22, 1978 Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, USSR |
| Political party | National Movement - Democrats |
Davit Kezerashvili (Georgian: დავით კეზერაშვილი) (born September 22, 1978) is a Georgian politician, who from November 10, 2006 to December 5, 2008 was the country's Minister of Defense.
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Kezerashvili was born in Tbilisi.[1] After migrating to Russia, he went to Israel in 1992, where he lived with his grandmother in the Kiryat Ben-Gurion neighborhood of Holon and attended high school. After a year and a half, he left Israel and returned to Georgia. He studied law and international relations at Tbilisi State University.[2]
After working in the Justice Ministry he became an assistant to Mikheil Saakashvili, then the Minister for Justice.
Kezerashvili then worked in the Finance Ministry from 2004 until November 2006, including a role as chair of the financial police force. On November 11, 2006, he was appointed as Georgian Defense Minister, replacing Irakli Okruashvili. He was dismissed from this post amid criticisms over the Georgia-Russia war on December 5, 2008.[3]
Kezerashvili is a founding member of the liberal United National Movement, and contested an election in 2002 under their banner.[4]
He is also a close personal ally of the party's leader, Georgian President Saakashvili.[5]
Shalva Natelashvili of the Georgian Labour Party criticized Kezerashvili's appointment, arguing that he "has never served in the army... doesn't even have the title of sergeant and has no clue about the armed forces."[6]
As chief of the financial police, Kezerashvili received criticism for heavy-handed tactics in raiding businesses.[7]
Kezerashvili was dismissed from his post of the defence minister on December 5, 2008 during a major cabinet shuffle. His dismissal has been expected in the aftermath of Georgia's defeat in the 2008 South Ossetia War.[8] Davit Kezerashvili is succeeded by former ambassador to the US, Vasil Sikharulidze.
In December 2008, Sozar Subari, Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia, claimed he had evidence that then Georgia's Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili had ordered police to beat protesters, "mainly in the kidneys and the stomach."[9] In his testimony before Georgian Parliament, Subari claimed that he possessed evidence that Defense Minister Davit Kezerashvili, Justice Minister Zurab Adeishvili and Davit Akhalaia (who had no official office then) had had a secret meeting at the office of Interior Ministry on November 4, 2007 where they had decided on the course of action for handling the demonstrations:
"The interior minister ordered that the demonstrators be hit mainly in the kidneys and the stomach, or in the face only when necessary. The interior minister also said at the meeting that not a single participant in the action must escape unbeaten in order to teach them a lesson for the future."[9][10]