Everyone who “protected and promoted” Saakashvili “accepted unrest” in Georgia - Parliament Speaker

Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Parliament Speaker, on Wednesday said “everyone inside and outside the country” who had “protected and promoted” the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili since his conviction in Georgia in absentia in 2018 had “accepted unrest” in the country.

In his press comments on the sidelines of the Georgia Cybersecurity Forum in Tbilisi, Papuashvili said Saakashvili had been allowed to “move freely” throughout the European Union and offered public posts in Ukraine following his conviction in Georgia, adding it was “unacceptable to shake hands with criminals and invite them at various events”. 

He also claimed the former official had been “actively engaged” in domestic politics despite having left the country in 2013, and had been “inciting radicalism” in Georgia. 

The official alleged the “key goal” of Saakahsvili’s return to Georgia in October 2021, while he chaired the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, had been to “spark unrest and confrontations” in the country. 

The Parliament Speaker thanked the country’s State Security Service for having “saved the country from unrest and bloodshed” by arresting Saakashvili on his clandestine return to the country after eight years.

“If it were not for the timely and professional response of our Security Service, which arrested Saakashvili on time, no one knows what the situation would be today on the streets of different cities of Georgia, who would be firing bullets, or whose tanks would be stationed here”, Papuashvili said.