Ruling party head: opposition politicians being mentioned as political prisoners in US State Department report a “total lie”

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday dismissed local media reports on the imprisoned opposition politicians Mikheil Saakashvili, Nika Melia and Giorgi Rurua being mentioned as political prisoners in the new United States Department of State report on human rights situation in Georgia as a “total lie”. 

Kobakhidze pointed to reports by some television channels on the matter and said they had mentioned portions of the report that quoted opposition parties referring to the three politicians as political prisoners, and alleged the TV channels had attempted to present the quotes as conclusions of the State Department report itself.

The ruling party official said the use of quotes from the parties made the mentions “a completely different thing” compared to the media representations.

[Y]esterday, the televisions affiliated with the opposition United National Movement party broadcast fake information [that] Saakashvili, Melia and Rurua were mentioned as political prisoners [in the report], which is a total lie. Here we are talking about these people being referred to as political prisoners by their own parties, which is a completely different thing,” Kobakhidze highlighted.

The party head also said Saakashvili had not been tortured or treated inhumanely in prison since his arrest last year. The former Georgian president was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after his clandestine return to Georgia ahead of municipal elections. He had been found guilty of abuse of power in two cases in absentia in 2018 and faces additional charges including illegal seizure of property, embezzlement and illegal rally dispersal and illegal border crossing.

The annual Report on Human Rights Practices of the United States Department of State released on Tuesday stated that “opposition party members had considered Rurua and Melia a political prisoner and detainee, respectively. They also considered former president Mikheil Saakashvili to be a political detainee.”