Ruling party: ‘no expectations’ that President Zurabishvili may pardon Saakashvili
The opposition claims that President Salome Zurabishvili has become critical of the ruling party and the party is afraid she may pardon ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Tweet 
Share
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party says that ‘there are no expectations’ that President Salome Zurabishvili may pardon ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili who pledges to return to Georgia from Ukraine on the evening of the October 2 municipal election day.
President Zurabishvili, who was elected to the post back in 2018 with the support of the GD, has recently criticised the government for not taking the EU loan and said earlier this week that a coalition government is necessary for Georgia.
Head of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party Nika Melia says that ‘as it seems the GD no longer trusts Zurabishvili’ and that the ruling party ‘allows the possibility’ Zurabishvili may pardon Saakashvili if he returns.
Melia also claimed that the country’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office is likely to bring new charges against Saakashvili ‘to prevent his release’ if Zurabishvili really pardons him.
Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili has called Saakashvili 'coward who has made pledges on return 18 times.' Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
The GD has dismissed reports on new charges.
Member of the UNM Roman Gotsiridze says that Saakashvili ‘will go to prison when he returns. However, he will have to stay there for a short period of time.’
The Georgian people and the international community will not allow his arrest on political grounds,” Gotsiridze said.
Saakashvili who served as the country’s third president from 2004 to 2013 left Georgia back in 2013 after the GD came to power in 2012.
He faces several criminal charges such as the violent dispersal of anti-government mass protests on November 7, 2007, raiding of TV channel Imedi by riot police,illegal take-over of the property and other crimes.
Saakashvili has already been convicted in absentia for two cases, while trials in two other cases are still in progress.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili says that the composition of the Georgian government by the majority only over the past nine years has shown that a coalition government ‘is necessary for Georgia,’ Zurabishvili has told Le Journal du Dimanche during her recent trip to France. However, Zurabishvili says that it is hard to forecast how the coalition government may work.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that if Georgia’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili will return for the October 2 municipal elections in Georgia, he will be arrested. Saakashvili has posted a photo of a reserved ticket from Ukraine to Georgia for the evening of the day of municipal elections in Georgia.
Former president of Georgian Mikheil Saakashvili, who currently chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, has posted a photo of a reserved ticket from Ukraine to Georgia for the evening of the day of municipal elections in Georgia on October 2. Saakashvili, now a citizen of Ukraine, has called on voters to support the opposition and after the closure of polling stations took to the street ‘to defend votes.’
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has stated it is unclear for her and the public why the Georgian Dream government has refused to take the second tranche of the EU’s 150 million euro loan which should have been addressed to decrease 'the social and human damage that COVID has done to our population'.
MEP Viola Von Cramon has stated that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s return to the country for the October 2 municipal elections ‘will not serve the interests of Georgia,’ noting that it will deepen the crisis and create unnecessary tension. Saakashvili pledged earlier in September that he will return to Georgia for the local elections and published a photo of a reserved ticket from Ukraine to Georgia yesterday.
Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili released a live video allegedly from Georgia’s coastal city of Batumi late yesterday and said that he is already in Georgia ahead of tomorrow’s municipal elections. In the video Saakashvili has urged the public to vote for the United National Movement (UNM) in the elections and if not the UNM, then some other, smaller, ‘real opposition parties’ and not for the Georgian Dream ruling party (GD) or ex-PM Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party.
Head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Irakli Kobakhidze says that Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s recently released video allegedly from the Georgian city of Batumi is a fake and that Saakashvili is a ‘clown.’ “I can say for sure that the video is fake. Saakashvili is not in Georgia,” Kobakhidze said. The Georgian Interior Ministry also claims that Saakashvili has not crossed the Georgian border.
The United National Movement (UNM) opposition party held a media briefing earlier today in which they said that the Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili has ‘really returned’ ahead of tomorrow’s municipal elections. UNM representative Eka Kherkheulidze said that she doesn't know how Saakashvili managed to return. However, she added that the ‘country’s intelligence service is even unable to prevent the entry of Russian spies.’
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has stated that she will never pardon former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili who has been arrested on October 1 in Tbilisi. She noted that the rule of law requires detention of Saakashvili saying that ‘before the law all are equal.’