The Hill: “Why do US senators support a tyrant?”

A top American broadcast media executive with strong links to Georgia has written a damning report questioning why four US senators continued to support Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili despite numerous criminal charges being filed against the ex-leader for abuse of power.

In a blog for top US political website www.thehill.com, Lewis Robertson said he was "ashamed” a handful of US senators continued to support Saakashvili and used personal experience stating why Saakashvili, he believed, should be held accountable for the atrocities he was responsible for while in power, including the armed raid of Georgia’s independent television company IMEDI TV.

"Along with many colleagues, I was at the station the night of November 7, 2007 when it was overrun by Saakashvili’s storm troopers …. Their faces covered in masks so as not to be identified, the AK47 rifles they held were pointed at the stomach of an 8 ½ month pregnant employee as she crouched on the floor in the foetal position trying to protect her unborn baby,” he writes.

I saw rifles pointed at the head of a young employee lying crouched on the floor, hands covering his face, hoping he would not get shot in the head.

"Who gives the order to attack a privately owned television station and hold their employees hostage? In a country of less than five million people, only one person – President Saakashvili – had the authority and power to order such an attack.”

Now, with a change of power and a new Government in place, Robertson had hope for the future of Georgia and its people.

"With a new government in power that is committed to establishing the rule of law, and the former president on the run from the Georgian police, I am encouraged that what transpired that November day will be adjudicated in a manner that will bring justice for all of us who lived through that awful day and night.”

Read the full article here: www.thehill.com