Getting to know the world's prisons

Mr Okruashvili, the 'disgraced' former Georgian Defense minister, who one minute was making accusations of murder and mayhem against the re-elected president, was then thrown into prison for corruption, discharged on bail of about 6 million USD, left Georgia for medical treatment in Germany, was thrown into prison there following an extradition request from Georgia, now finds himself in prison in France. It could be worse, I suppose.

The extradition request came about when he failed to turn up for his court hearing around 10 November, partly because he was in Germany and partly because his lawyers said they had not had enough time to prepare. Seems a perfectly reasonable extradition request to me. Given that the accusations against him are also against German law (corruption etc) Germany had to act on the request. He's now been sent to France because he wants to apply for political asylum; apparently his passport contained a French visa (but not a German one, when he went there for 'treatment'? I don't believe it!). It seems that asylum requests have to be dealt with before extradition requests.

Mr Okruashvili claims he cannot return to Georgia while Saakashvili is President because he would not get a fair hearing. Who knows? I wonder who put up the 6 million USD of bail money - they'll be pining for their cash. And he put it up himself, a little minister from a small country - that would answer a lot of questions, no?