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The News in Brief

Wednesday, May 23
Ex-President of Georgia Accuses Geostat of Data Falsification

Former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili accuses the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) of data falsification.

The old data shows that during the nine years of Saakashvili’s presidency, more people have returned to Georgia than left the country. However, as a result of recount, Geostat announced that during Saakashvili’s term more people left the country that after the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) came to power.

Saakashvili stated that the number of those citizens, who have left the country increased since ex-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili and his GD team came into power.

“The Geostat deliberately changed the statistics, because they were instructed by Ivanishvili. This means that the oligarch [Ivanishvili] will falsify the presidential election results as well,” Saakashvili told Rustavi 2 TV.



Deputy Public Defender: No Application Submitted Regarding May 12 Incident

Deputy Public Defender Giorgi Burjanadze stated that no application has been submitted to the Ombudsman's Office regarding the May 12 incident, when the police raided two nightclubs in Tbilisi, saying they aimed at arresting drug dealers.

“No application has been submitted to the Public Defender's Office. We received calls by hot line and we are studying them. No official application has been submitted yet. We are currently learning the information spread through public sources, including video materials and information spread by individuals. We also requested information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and we are waiting for materials, "Burjanadze said.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia carried out investigative measures in two popular clubs, Bassiani and Cafe Gallery on May 12. The Ministry reported that 8 persons have been detained for drug traffiking.

The raid in nightclubs came after 48 cases of drug intoxication of clubbers over the past two weeks.
(By Mariam Chanishvili)