Merabishvili was born in the largely Georgian Roman Catholic village of Ude in what is now Samtskhe-Javakheti region in south Georgia, then a Soviet republic.
On 18 July 2005 Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili issued photos of an unidentified suspect and announced a reward of 150,000 Lari (USD $80,000) for information leading to the suspect's identification.
On March 16, the most significant protests towards the authorities began with thousands of motorists beeping their horns in Tbilisi and other cities signaling increasing anger against the Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili.