Georgia charges opposition tycoon with coup plot

TBILISI – Georgian prosecutors on Thursday charged opposition politician and tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, in self-imposed exile in Israel and Britain, with plotting a coup and attempting to organize a terrorist attack.

“Patarkatsishvili should come to the Prosecutor-General’s office,” a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor-General said by telephone. She added his bank account had been frozen.

Patarkatsishvili, an opponent of President Mikhail Saakashvili, left Georgia after mass opposition protests late last year.