EU condemns appeals for violence in leaked audio conversation
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Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Georgia Janos Herman says he is "concerned” by the recently leaked audio recordings revealing the conversations of Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakahsvili with various individuals over an alleged coup in Georgia.
"Apart from the obvious the questions about how they were made public, I would like to underline that we consider calls for violence unacceptable, no matter where and whom they come from,” Herman said.
He added the EU strongly supported further dialogue by all parts of society based on full respect to rule of law as well as political and media pluralism in Georgia.
Consequently, I welcome recent statements by the Prime Minister and the President of Georgia and I commend also the calls for calm and restraint made by numerous political actors, including the opposition, as well as civil society and representatives of the media.”
We are ready to stay in contact with all of them as the EU continues to closely follow the matter,” Herman stressed.
The audio recordings released on a Ukrainian webpage last week revealed Saakashvili urged members of the former ruling party United National Movement (UNM) and a leader with private broadcaster Rustavi 2 to stage a revolution, encourage unrest in the country and use the legal dispute between the current and former shareholders of Rustavi 2 as cause for the clash.
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The director of the private broadcasting company Rustavi 2 Nika Gvaramia and the leader of opposition party United National Movement (UNM) Giga Bokeria approved the authenticity and content of recorded audio phone conversations with Georgia’s ex-president Saakashvili, which was published today by Ukrainian website www.uareview.in.ua.
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