Ruling party officials offer EP members to create mission to look into arrested opposition leader’s case
Ruling party officials Kakha Kaladze (L) and Irakli Kobakhidze are holding meetings in Strasbourg. Photo: Georgian Dream press office.
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Ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Secretary General, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze and the party’s Executive Secretary Irakli Kobakhidze have offered MEPs in the European parliament to create a special mission, composed of members of different political groups, to look into the embezzlement case involving opposition leader Gigi Ugulava.
Kaladze and Kobakhidze stated in Strasbourg yesterday, after meeting with several MEPs, that the mission ‘will have the full opportunity’ to familiarize itself with the case details concerning former Tbilisi Mayor Ugulava, who was convicted earlier this week for the embezzlement of 48 million GEL while in office.
Kobakhidze said that MEPs had questions regarding the case.
The creation of such a mission is absolutely possible in the European Parliament and we have received positive feedback regarding the issue. We hope that the mission will come to Georgia soon and look into the case. I am sure that the MEPs will see that 48 million GEL was embezzled and will say that such crimes must not be left unpunished,” Kobakhidze said.
The opposition says that Ugulava is a political prisoner. Photo: Mtavari Arkhi.
He also told MEPs that the ruling party proposal for the 2020 elections, on the distribution of 100 seats in parliament based on the proportional system and the remaining 50 via the majoritarian system ‘is the only proposal’ which will be able to receive at least 113 votes in parliament for approval.
The United National Movement MP Salome Samadashvili has stated that ‘no one knew’ Kobakhidze and Kaladze in the European Parliament and ‘they could hardly hold’ several meetings.
Samadashvili and fellow member of the UNM Otar Kakhidze displayed posters during the EU-Georgia Association meeting which read ‘Gigi Ugulava is a political prisoner.’
The US embassy to Georgia has reported that they are disappointed that the timing and context of the conviction and sentencing of an opposition leader Gigi Ugulava yesterday has put the election dialogue between opposition parties and the ruling Georgian Dream party at risk. Ugulava, who was the ex-Tbilisi mayor under the United National Movement leadership and now a current leader of the European Georgia opposition party, has been sentenced to three years and two months in prison.
Ruling party MP Mamuka Mdinaradze has responded to US Congressman Adam Kinzinger’s concern on the arrest of the opposition leader Gigi Ugulava by saying that the court was used as a weapon under the United National Movement government (UNM) that Ugulava belonged to.
Leader of European Georgia opposition party and ex-Mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava has been sentenced to three years and two months in prison by Georgian Supreme Court for the embezzlement of 48 million GEL from Tbilisi Municipal Development fund while in office. In February 2018 the Tbilisi Court of Appeals also sentenced Ugulava to one year and three months to prison in the case. However, the sentence was absorbed by another sentence Ugulava faced.
Bail has been set at 2,000 GEL for former Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava, who was charged with physical assault after a recent incident involving athletes at Tbilisi International Airport.
Members of the European Parliament have welcomed the offer of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party on the creation of a fact-finding commission into the arrested opposition leader Gigi Ugulava’s case, while the opposition is skeptical of the idea.Ruling party officials proposed MEPs in Strasbourg yesterday to create a commission and come to Georgia to look into Ugulava’s case, ‘to make sure there is no political persecution’ in Georgia.
The Georgian opposition parties plan to nominate joint majoritarian candidates if the upcoming parliamentary elections later this year will be held per the existing electoral system, with 77 seats in the legislative body distributed via proportional voting and the remaining 73 via the majoritarian system.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party is ready to accept one of the demands of the opposition for the 2020 elections which will make it impossible for a party to form a government if it receives less than 40 per cent of the vote. Parliament Chair Archil Talakvadze says that the ruling party is making ‘fair and pragmatic offers’ to the opposition to settle the row related to the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Leader of the European Georgia opposition party, former Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava who has been imprisoned for the embezzlement of 48 million GEL in state funds, says that he does not want the opposition’s demand for his release to create an obstacle in reaching an agreement [with the ruling party] on the 2020 election issue.