Ombudswoman: 62 employees subjected to various forms of pressure ahead of elections
The pre-election campaign in Georgia started on August 3. Photo: Public Defender's press office.
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The Georgian Public Defender’s Office says that ‘62 employees were subjected to various forms of pressure’ and dozens were dismissed on political grounds ahead of the October 2 municipal elections.
Ombudswoman Nino Lomjaria has called on the Georgian government ‘not to dismiss or instruct the dismissal of employees due to their political views’ and to investigate the alleged cases of such actions.
Public Defender’s Statement on Dismissal of Individuals due to Political Views https://t.co/df6MTRaq8T
— Ombudsman of Georgia (@Ombudsman_Geo) September 1, 2021
The statement also notes that most of these people were somehow connected to former Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party which was launched on May 29, 2021.
Giorgi Gakharia resigned from the post on February 18, 2021 due to a disagreement with the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party on the issue of the arrest of United National Movement (UNM) opposition party head Nika Melia.
Melia was charged with incitement to violence during the June protests in Tbilisi back in 2019 caused by the presence of Russian MPs in the Georgian parliament and was arrested in June 2019 and released on bail for 30,000 GEL.
Melia violated the conditions of his bail by publicly removing his surveillance bracelet and as a result 40,000 GEL was added to his bail in November 2020 which he refused to pay and therefore was taken back into custody in February 2021.
The GD accused Gakharia and the UNM of planning an alleged coup in February 2021, noting that Gakharia’s resignation ‘was profitable for the UNM.’ Photo: Giorgi Gakharia/Facebook.
Most of them, in a conversation with the representatives of the Public Defender, confirmed pressure and dismissal, and explained the above by kinship, friendship or good relations with members of the party of former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia,” the Ombudswoman's statement reads.
The Public Defender’s office reports that these individuals were fired from the Interior Ministry, municipal services, non-commercial legal entities and other public institutions.
The Georgian Ombudsman’s office has sent cases of 34 individuals to Georgia’s Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry ‘for investigation and response.’
Per the survey of the International Republican Institute (IRI) Giorgi Gakharia is the second most liked politician in Georgia after GD’s candidate for Tbilisi mayor, incumbent Kakha Kaladze.