Certain MEPs “deliberately harming” Georgia “in aid” of ex-Pres. Saakashvili - Parliament Speaker
Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Parliament Speaker, on Monday said European Parliament’s resolutions had become a “source of misinformation and attack on Georgia”. Photo: Parliament press office
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Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Parliament Speaker, on Monday alleged a group of members of the European Parliament was taking “deliberate actions to harm Georgia’s image” in a bid to facilitate an “illegal release” of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili from detention.
Papuashvili made the claim in his interview for Kviris Palitra newspaper, which was published on Monday, with the comment also coming following a European Parliament resolution last week that expressed a “grave concern over deteriorating health” of Saakashvili and called for his release on health grounds.
Responding to the document, Papuashvili claimed EP resolutions had become a “source of misinformation and attack on Georgia”, a development he called “very much regrettable”, and noted the MEPs who stood behind it were “friends of Saakashvili, not Georgia”.
Pointing to a “number of inaccuracies” in the resolution text, the official reminded the European lawmakers that Saakashvili had fled the country in 2013 to “escape justice” and had “never been a refugee”, in contrast to their claims.
He added the former official had been convicted in the 2006 murder case of Sandro Girgvliani - a banker who was tortured and killed on the instructions of former officials under Saakashvili’s United National Movement Government - with the European Court of Human Rights confirming their guilt in its 2011 ruling.
Papuashvili also highlighted last week’s ruling of the ECHR in the case of a former Georgian inmate that said torture and inhuman treatment in Georgian prisons under UNM authorities had been “systematic and widespread”.
Challenging the views by several MEPs who described Saakashvili as the “founder of the democratic state” or a “democratic ruler”, the Parliament Speaker said “evidence” showed Saakashvili ruled “like a Soviet punitive machine” during his time in office.
The official also criticised the domestic rehabilitation centre Empathy, which commissioned a report on Saakashvili that last year pointed to more than 20 health issues and recommended his “urgent transfer abroad” on medical grounds. Papuashvili claimed it had been “not the first time” the centre had produced “fake reports”.
The EP resolution - which received votes from 577 MEPs, with 33 voting against - also called the ongoing circumstances around Saakashvili a “litmus test of the Georgian Government’s commitment to European values and its declared European aspirations, including European Union candidate status”.
The European Court of Human Rights ruling in a case involving a former prisoner has “confirmed” torture and inhuman treatment were “systematic and widespread” in Georgian prisons under the United National Movement Government, the country’s Justice Ministry said on Friday.
Georgia’s Vice Prime Minister Thea Tsulukiani on Tuesday said concerns voiced by Pawel Herczynski, the European Union Ambassador to Georgia, over the allegedly deteriorated health of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili were “surprising and groundless”.
Lawyers of Mikheil Saakashvili, the imprisoned former president of Georgia, on Thursday appealed to Tbilisi City Court for granting his release on medical grounds, citing a new report by a domestic rehabilitation centre that pointed to potential “coma and death” for the former official in detention.
Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been detained today, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced. "Our law enforcement agencies had prior information about his (Saakashvili’s) movement from Ukraine to Georgia and the process was under the control” Garibashvili stated.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said the Georgian public had responded with rejection to the “radicalism” and the “staged movie” of the 2021 clandestine return to the country of the now-imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Monday called the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili the “only saboteur” as the latter warned of a Russian “subversive group” operating in the country to “spark unrest”.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Monday rejected as “classic manipulation” the domestic media reports that criticised Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili’s participation in the Belt and Road Forum, an event hosted in China and also involving the Russian President Vladimir Putin, as a case of the Georgian Government’s “bilateral contact” with the Russian leader.
Kakha Kaladze, the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday said “any attempt” of Government overthrow from groups “both inside and outside the country” would “fail”, in reaction to comments by the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili on an alleged presence of a subversive group in the country with the goal.
Beka Dzamashvili, the Deputy Justice Minister of Georgia, on Thursday said the latest report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment had observed “no cases of violence and mistreatment” of prisoners, including Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili, in the civilian clinic in Tbilisi where the former official has been undergoing treatment since 2022.
Mikheil Sarjveladze, the Chair of the Parliament's Human Rights Committee, on Thursday denounced an amendment introduced by Anna Fotyga, a member of the European Parliament, to a resolution to urge the Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili to pardon the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili, as “provocative”.