A Prosecutor said today he will be asking the court to replace pretrial detention with release on bail for Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilychova, the two former civil servants accused of attempted ceding lands to Azerbaijan during border delimitation talks.

Noting that the prosecution “identified a motive” – acting upon superiors’ instructions – behind the state experts’ behavior, the prosecutor said the prosecution will at this stage put its efforts into revealing the superiors that gave Melashvili and Ilychova the said orders.

Few days ago, on January 21, the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia said it completed the investigation, and sent the case to the court for consideration. The Prosecutor’s Office said then that the two civil servants acted upon superiors’ instructions.