Tbilisi City Court ruled that tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili had illegally distributed free satellite television antennas to potential voters and in a separate violation had unlawfully provided cut-price transport to his Georgian Dream opposition coalition through his companies.

 

"Bidzina Ivanishvili was recognised to have broken Georgian law," the court said in a statement.

 

The businessman, whose fortune has been estimated at $6.4 billion, has vowed that his coalition will oust President Mikheil Saakashvili's governing party at parliamentary elections this autumn.

 

Ivanishvili and his companies were also fined more than $3 million in March for violating political finance legislation.

 

Thousands of people attended Ivanishvili's campaign rally in Georgia's second city Kutaisi on Sunday, which followed a similar mass gathering in the capital Tbilisi last month that drew tens of thousands of people.

 

His decision to challenge the powerful Saakashvili has revitalised the country's opposition, although opinion polls suggest that his alliance trails the governing party.

 

Ivanishvili was stripped of his Georgian passport for violating citizenship laws after announcing his decision to enter politics last year.

 

But the constitution has since been changed to allow EU citizens to contest parliamentary polls in a move apparently aimed at enabling the tycoon, who holds a French passport, to take part.