following a Prosecutor's Office request, a court in Tbilisi ruled that Okruashvili be returned to police custody pending investigation. In December 2007, he was arrested in Germany at the request of Georgia, but was later transferred to France, where a court ruled that he be freed on bail with Georgia's extradition request to be examined on April 16, 2008. In the meantime, a Georgian court found him guilty of "large-scale extortion" and sentenced him to 11 years in prison in absentia on March 28, 2008. On April 23, 2008, he was granted political asylum. The French courts ultimately rejected the extradition request as well. In September 2008 Reuters reported Okruashvili had said that Saakashvili had long planned the 2008 South Ossetia war but had executed it poorly. While defence minister from 2004 to 2006 he and Saakashvili worked together on military plans to retake South Ossetia and Abkhazia, saying "Abkhazia was our strategic priority, but we drew up military plans in 2005 for taking both Abkhazia and South Ossetia as well". In October 2010, Okruashvili resigned his position in the Movement for United Georgia and shortly afterwards joined with the high-profile Georgia-based politicians — Sozar Subari, Levan Gachechiladze, and Erosi Kitsmarishvili to establish a new opposition party, the Georgian Party. Return, imprisonment and release In a phone interview with the Tbilisi-based Maestro TV on May 22, 2011, he said "On May 25 I will be in Georgia together with my people. I will not talk about details. On May 25 we will manage to put an end to Saakashvili's regime with minimal losses. If there is a great public support, the losses will be minimal. So, everybody should acknowledge the responsibility, which should be assumed before our country." After government change in Georgia Okruashvili, who faces multiple criminal charges in Georgia, returned from his French exile back to his home country. But despite a broad amnesty for political prisoners he was arrested upon arrival in the Tbilisi airport on November 20, 2012. Georgian Justice Minister, Tea Tsulukiani, commented, that she shared the view that Okruashvili "was subjected to politically-motivated persecution by the [previous] authorities." "But it does not automatically mean that he is innocent in those criminal charges that he may face; it requires investigation," Tsulukiani told journalists. "There are number of criminal charges brought against him and the most recent one is related to setting up of illegal armed