President attends meeting with Patriarch on recent murder plot
Tweet 
Share
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili attended a meeting today at the Patriarchate where clergymen and Patriarch Ilia II gathered to discuss the case of the murder plot against a high-ranking member of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
The patriarch returned home from a German hospital yesterday evening.
After today’s meeting the Patriarch said that "people are concerned” and "we should give them answers”.
President Margvelashvili attended the first hour of the meeting after the Patriarch invited him to the gathering.
Following the meeting the President said that the Patriarch and other high-ranking clergymen "very openly” talk about "these difficulties”.
"This was a discussion where everyone gets a chance to voice their different viewpoints”, Margvelashvili said, adding that he wishes for such openness for politicians too.
"I can sum up this discussion with this: We should allow each party to state their own version”, Margvelashvili said.
He added that the right of Giorgi Mamaladze – the archpriest who has been detained for the alleged crime – to be presumed innocent until proven guilty has been violated.
Margvelashvili believes that Mamaladze’s lawyers should be allowed to communicate their version of the developments to the public.
His lawyers requested to be allowed to meet with the Patriarch to voice their position today.
Georgia’s First Deputy Chief Prosecutor Mamuka Vasadze says that details related to an alleged murder plot against a high-ranking clergyman of the Georgian Orthodox Church will be revealed after Patriarch Ilia II returns to Georgia.
Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has thanked Georgian law enforcement officers for preventing a "disaster” from happening after police detained an archpriest for allegedly planning to murder a high-ranking clergyman of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Police have detained an archpriest who was allegedly plotting the murder of a high-ranking clergy member of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
The archpriest who was allegedly plotting the murder of a high-ranking clergy member of the Georgian Orthodox Church will be question on Monday, authorities say.
The archpriest who was detained for allegedly plotting the murder of a high-ranking clergy member of the Georgian Orthodox Church has been found guilty.
Archbishop Jacob, who has been one of the most influential figures in the Georgian Patriarchate, has quit the position of Patriarch Ilia II’s assistant and the chief of the Economic and Financial Council of the Patriarchate amid political turmoil around him.
A Holy Synod meeting earlier today has ended with the decision to dismiss Chkondidi Metropolitan Petre from the post and request the release of convicted archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze.