Georgian ex-PM sentenced to 3 years in jail for power abuse

 A Georgian court on Monday sentenced former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili to three years in prison for abuse of power in connection with a murder case.
Also charged with fraud in the murder case of a businessman in 2006, when he was then interior minister, Merabishvili was banned from taking a high post for two years.
The former prime minister, not in court when the guilty verdict was announced, is serving a 4.5-year sentence in prison handed down in separate trials connected to the crackdown of protesters in May 2011.
Merabishvili is also a co-defendant with former President Mikheil Saakashvili in a criminal case about suppressing protesters in November 2007 and raiding an opposition television station.