TBILISI, Dec 27 (Reuters) - A Georgian court on Tuesday upheld President Mikheil Saakashvili's decree stripping a billionaire opponent of his citizenship, hitting the tycoon's plans to challenge the ruling party in a 2012 parliamentary election.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, a once reclusive tycoon whose wealth is estimated at $5.5 billion by Forbes magazine, launched his own political movement and called for the president’s resignation in October.
Saakashvili’s pro-Western government has denounced Ivanishvili as a stooge of the Kremlin which humiliated Georgia in a 2008 war.
Ivanishvili has denied the charge but has said he wants to repair relations with Moscow.
Georgia’s justice ministry ruled earlier this year that Ivanishvili’s Georgian citizenship had become "automatically invalid" as soon as he acquired a French passport — a decision that barred him from financing any Georgian political party.
A judge at Tbilisi’s city court upheld a Saakashvili decree stripping Ivanishvili’ of his citizenship, a spokeswoman said. Ivanishvili’s lawyers said they plan to appeal against the ruling.
The billionaire was originally granted a Georgian passport under a presidential decree signed by Saakashvili in 2004, when he returned to Georgia from Russia.
The businessman also held Russian citizenship, but revoked it. Georgia does not permit multiple citizenship.
Georgia’s central bank in October launched a probe into a bank owned by Ivanishvili, and police have seized millions of dollars from its coffers on suspicion of money laundering.
Tbilisi city court said on Tuesday that part of a presidential decree revoking the Georgian citizenship of Ivanishvili’s wife was illegal.
