The verdict is in for a controversial murder case that involves several officials from Georgia?s Interior Ministry, but the political fall-out could be long in coming for the government, with one minister charging that the trial was not legitimate. On July 6, Gia Alania, former head of the first unit of the Interior Ministry?s Department for Constitutional Security (DCS), was sentenced to eight years in prison for inflicting injuries that resulted in the death of Sandro Girgvliani, head of the international relations department for United Georgian Bank. Avtandil Aptsiauri, Aleksander Gachava and Mikheil Bibiluri, also from the DCS, were sentenced to seven years? imprisonment on the same charge. The case has been highly politicized since early February, when a television news magazine report alleged that four top-level Interior Ministry officials may have ordered Girgvliani?s January 27 murder in response to a spat they had with the banker at a downtown Tbilisi cafe.