list contains 33 names of suspects in crimes reportedly committed against ethnic Georgians in Abkhazia and South Ossetia since the end of the secessionist wars in the 1990s. 28 June – The governments of Georgia and Hong Kong, the special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, sign a free trade agreement aimed at expanding bilateral trade in goods and services. 28 June – The Tbilisi City Court sentences the former President Mikheil Saakashvili in absentia to six years in prison for the alleged abuse of power by trying to cover up evidence related to the 2005 beating of the opposition politician Valeri Gelashvili. Saakashvili denounces the verdict as politically motivated. July 4 July – Zurab Pataradze, the head of the government of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, steps down, triggering the resignation of the region's entire cabinet. 9 July – Police arrests a 19-year-old shepherd on suspicion of killing an American–Georgian family of three—44-year-old Ryan Smith, his 43-year-old wife Laura Smith, and their four-year-old son—vacationing in the Khada Gorge. The man would be found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in March 2019. 16 July – Four miners are killed and six others are injured in a mining accident at the Mindeli coal mine in Tkibuli, western Georgia. This is the second major mining accident in the same mine in 2018, the previous one killing six on 5 April. 21 July – Tornike Rizhvadze and his four-member cabinet of Adjara are approved by the autonomous region's legislature. The move was preceded by a controversy over the government formation process between Georgia's President Giorgi Margvelashvili and the ruling Georgian Dream party. 30 July – The Constitutional Court of Georgia ruling outlaws administrative punishments, such as fines, for cannabis consumption, eight months after the court abolished criminal sanctions for cannabis use. Cultivation and selling remain a crime. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia unveils consumption regulations on 5 September. August 23–24 August – German Chancellor Angela Merkel pays a two-day visit to Georgia as part of his South Caucasian tour, travelling to an occupation line near Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia. Meeting with students, she speaks about "injustice" in relation to continued Russian military presence in Georgia's breakaway regions, which she calls "occupation". She also downplays prospects for Georgia's membership of NATO and EU any time soon. During Merkel's visit, Germany and Georgia sign development cooperation deals worth over €193