Ruling party head: Georgian Gov’t will “do its best” to protect rule of law

Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said the Government would “do its best” to protect the principle of the rule of law, which he called “one of the main European values”.

Kobakhidze was commenting the ruling by the Tbilisi City Court, which on Monday sentenced Mtavari Arkhi channel founder Nika Gvaramia for abuse of powers related to his time at the helm of the Rustavi 2 channel, and pointed out the European Union, in which Georgia aspires to gain membership, was “not about corruption, robbery and injustice”.

We must respond unequivocally to those who try to equate not punishing Gvaramia with Georgia's European prospects. It must be made clear that the European Union is not about corruption, robbery and injustice, but about the rule of law and the society free of corruption,” the GD official said after Gvaramia’s supporters and a part of the political opposition in the country alleged political cause in the ruling against the founder of the opposition-minded TV.

Kobakhidze also stressed if the Georgian opposition went on a boycott due to the Court ruling, it would have “no effect” on Georgia's prospects to obtain the European Union candidate status.

They want, of course, all the negative outcomes for our country - including war, unrest, troubles. This means that they do not want Georgia's European integration. However, we will not allow them to do that, and they do not have many prospects for that. No matter how much they boycott, sabotage, hold rallies of 30-20 persons, they have no prospect of involving the country in a war, creating unrest and an obstacle to the future of the country,” Kobakhidze concluded.