UNM naming ex-Pres. Saakashvili as leader “classic example of informal rule” - Justice Minister

Rati Bregadze, the Georgian Justice Minister, on Wednesday said comments by United National Movement, the largest opposition group in the country’s Parliament, that positioned the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili as the party’s leader were a “classic example of informal rule” in the group. 

Commenting on the sidelines of the Conference on Innovations in the Rehabilitation and Resocialisation Process of Inmates and Probationers in Tbilisi, the official said Saakashvili, who was arrested in 2021 on his clandestine return to the country, held Ukrainian citizenship and had “no right to be in charge of any domestic opposition party” in Georgia. 

He further noted naming the imprisoned former official as the party leader was “proof” UNM was being run by Saakashvili as well as former UNM Government officials like Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili and Defence Minister David Kezerashvili, while people who officially represented the party were “only their puppets”. 

In comments on whether he expected Saakashvili to be pardoned by President Salome Zourabichvili, the official said it was “difficult” for him to answer, but added he remembered the President’s previous comments where she said she would “never pardon” the former President. 

Saakashvili is currently serving his six-year-term for abuse of power while in office in two separate cases, while three other cases involving him are still pending.