Ruling party official warns President against pardoning Saakashvili

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday warned the Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili against pardoning the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili. 

Mdinaradze said Zourabichvili “must know” that “if she pardons Saakashvili, she will take responsibility for Saakashvili's actions between 2003-2012 and the harm done since then”.

“Pardoning Mikheil Saakashvili's would mean being complicit and taking responsibility for what he did in Georgia between 2003-2012, and not only in those years. After what he has done against Georgia”, he claimed. 

“If Salome Zourabichvili can do this, then she will probably pardon him, but nothing from her will surprise us anymore. [While she was] supported by us and a large part of the Georgian public, [...] we could not even make her say whether Georgia deserves the EU membership candidate status”, the party official said in reference to claims by GD of Zourabichvili’s comments on the status undermining the prospects for the country.

“Will she be able to pardon Saakashvili? This is an unpredictable story”, Mdinaradze said in his comments.

Saakashvili, who has Ukrainian citizenship and held a public post in the country, was arrested on his return to Georgia in October 2021 and is serving a six-year term for abuse of power in a case he had been convicted on. He has three other cases against him pending.