Ruling party official denounces participation of European officials in protest rally “sponsored” by wanted former official

Rati Ionatamishvili, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party faction in the Parliament, on Thursday denounced participation of European officials this week in a protest rally in Tbilisi against the controversial law on transparency of foreign influence, which he said had been “sponsored” by David Kezerashvili, the wanted former Defence Minister of Georgia in the United National Movement Government.

Ionatamishvili’s comments followed visiting foreign ministers from Latvia, Estonia, Iceland and Lithuania joining a rally against the law on Rustaveli Avenue on Wednesday.

In his social media message, Ionatamishvili noted the British Broadcasting Corporation’s investigation into a fraudulent “call centre” scheme involving Kezerashvili, in a report that last year detailed a global network of a scam operation targeting customers.

Kezerashvili has been exposed in a BBC documentary over the robbery of the century of European pensioners, which amounts to $1 billion. The United States imposed visa restrictions on him on the grounds of money laundering. Now, some high-ranking officials of the EU member states come out at the rally sponsored by Kezerashvili and say that Georgia did not exist before 2003”, the lawmaker claimed in reference to the year when the UNM Government came into power.

“When they return to their countries, what answer will they give to the citizens and pensioners of their countries? Why are they encouraging a criminal who cheated and robbed their pensioners?”, he added.

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday denounced the foreign politicians joining the “radical anti-Government rallies” as “unfriendly acts against Georgian people”.