Parliament Speaker: former President’s involvement in “fake misinformation” on Saakashvili against country “unfortunate”

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday alleged Giorgi Margvelashvili, a former President of the country, had “accused” the state and its penitentiary service of “torturing” the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili in detention in an “unfortunate” development.

Papuashvili’s comment followed the latest disclosures on the United States Department of Justice’s website, which revealed the media company Cision PR Newswire had received $11,500 on behalf of Saakashvili for including a reference to Margvelashvili as a part of a “coalition whose efforts are to save the life of the former president, Saakashvili” in a press-release intended to be picked up by international media outlets.

In his response, Papuashvili called on Margvelashvili to say “whether he had direct or indirect communication” with the lobbyists and whether he had “written the petition” in support of the former official.

I think the [Georgian] public has seen the benefits of the ‘Russian law’ [that disclosed the lobbying information] that is in force in the United States, and therefore, we saw that it was precisely the ‘Russian law’ that gave us the opportunity to find out what kind of organised, orchestrated campaign was being conducted against Georgia”, Papuashvili said in reference to the proposed Georgian bill on transparency of foreign influence that was retracted following public protests that drew parallels with a law in Russia.

“If it were not for the ‘Russian law’ that is in force in the United States, of course, we would not have known this, because no such ‘Russian law’ has been adopted in the EU yet. We do not have a ‘Russian law’ in Georgia - otherwise, if we had it, we would know not only how much money was spent on distributing the so-called petition, but we would also find out who has taken how much money to develop and sign this petition”, he added.

Papuashvili claimed the development meant that one former President - in reference to Saakashvili - had “organised the fake campaign against Georgia”, with another “carrying it out”.

Unfortunately, the current president Salome Zourabichvili does not say anything about it, but it would be interesting to know her opinion. [To know] what she thinks when it has been revealed what a mechanism was involved to discredit Georgia - to blackmail the authorities, including the President herself - in order to release Saakashvili from the prison”, he concluded.

Margvelashvili on Monday responded to the allegations by saying “when dirty lies and misinformation begin, it is not my purpose to comment in depth and with seriousness”.