President attends meeting with Patriarch on recent murder plot

President Giorgi Margvelashvili attended a meeting at the Patriarchate. Photo: President's press office.
Agenda.ge, 21 Feb 2017 - 18:26, Tbilisi,Georgia

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.