A local court has up to 48 hours to decide whether to imprison the detained former prime minister of Georgia or release him on bail.

Georgia's ex-prime minister Ivane (Vano) Merabishvili was on Tuesday detained on charges of mis-spending public funds and appreciating private properties.

If convicted, the former prime minister and now secretary- general of the opposition United National Movement would face up to 12 years in prison.

The Georgian prosecutor's office demanded imprisonment of the detained former prime minister as a precaution measure.

The detention of the former prime minister along with former health minister Zurab Chiaberashvili, carried out after initial interrogations in Georgia's second largest city of Kutaisi, was made public through a press briefing held by the prosecutor's office in Kutaisi.

The former prime minister was charged with mis-spending 5.2 million Georgian laris (about 3.2 million U.S. dollars) of government budgetary money on the party's election campaign prior to last October's legislative polls.

Former health minister Zurab Chiaberashvili was charged with the same wrong-doing.

The former prime minister was also said to face another separate charge of appropriation of private properties and embezzlement of 158,000 Georgian laris (97,530 dollars) in 2009.

The United National Movement party was the ruling party of the South Caucasus country from 2003 till October last year when it lost the parliamentary elections to the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia coalition.

The prosecutor's office told a press briefing in Kutaisi that Ivane Merabishvili had included on a ministerial payroll some 22, 000 party activists whose only job was to canvass for the then ruling United National Movement party.

The former prime minister, who served as the interior minister before being appointed to the premierial portfolio by the Georgian president in June last year, would possibly face another charge of targeted and excessive use of force against demonstrators in May of 2011. The use of force allegedly caused deaths of two protesters from the then opposition.

According to a statement released by the prosecutor's office, the former prime minister allegedly had channeled state funds to the United National Movement election campaign for "vote buying" through employment agents who were allegedly hired to register unemployed citizens.

The United National Movement on Tuesday condemned the detention of the party's secretary-general and the former health minister also on the party's card as political persecution.

The sitting prime minister of the South Caucasus country, Bidzina Ivanishvili, said on Tuesday however that the United National Movement allegations were weak.

"Europe and America have understood well that we do not pursue selective justice," said Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvilia, " There will be no political persecution. I can repeat again that we will not allow any political persecution. I think that we should wait for the trial. Questions did exist toward the previous authorities... but we should not claim anything in advance. Let's wait for the (trial) process." Endi

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