Press Scanner
Compiled by Etuna Tsotniashvili
Tuesday, June 16
Levan Gachechiladze: Saakashvili has not offered us posts
In an interview with Mteli Kvira Levan Gachechiladze has said that reports that the Minister of Interior and Minister of Justice also attended his meeting with the President are wrong. “If anyone in this country trusts me, I want to assure him or her that neither Vano Merabishvili nor Zurab Adeishvili attended this meeting. It was just Saakashvili and I sitting face to face,” Gachechiladze said.
Gachechiladze also denied that Saakashvili offered him the post of Tbilisi Mayor. “Of course not, there wasn’t even any discussion about the Tbilisi Mayor’s post. We talked about different issues. We discussed how we could depoliticise the police and I asked about Imedi. The President said that Imedi will not be returned t its owners because of the Russian factor, although he promised that some innocent people would soon be released from prison, including some political prisoners,” Gachechiladze said. However he did not specify exactly which political prisoners he meant.
Beaten opposition activists aren’t cooperating with investigators
Interior Ministry Spokesman Shota Khizanishvili says that despite the fact opposition leaders talk about their activists being beaten they have not made any specific complaints to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kviris Kronika writes.
“It is not true that detained opposition activists have been beaten. Opposition leaders have said this several times, but they have not come to the police with any specific case or made any official statement to us. We are conducting our own investigation, independently, into each detention, but during these investigations the detainees have refused to give evidence or cooperate with the police. They complain only on TV, not to the police. Therefore it is very difficult to conduct an investigation and identify if anyone has committed a crime,” Khizanishvili says.
Salome Zourabichvili tells diplomatic corps not to make statements
At an information meeting outside Parliament Leader of the Way of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili called on diplomats not to make the sort of statements they made after the attacks on MPs, Akhali Taoba reports.
“The Embassies were stirred up, and this is very strange for me, because I have lived in many European and other countries and have seen young people take protest actions, but when I was an Ambassador I never made such statements. This is interfering in a domestic situation, which Embassies have no authority to do,” Zourabichvili said.
The Way of Georgia leader insisted that the current Georgian authorities have no support from European countries or the American administration and she can prove this by means of the Ambassadors’ statements. Zourabishvili called on the Ambassadors to make more thoughtful declarations and not speak until they had met the opposition. The opposition’s struggle is peaceful and the actions of the young people were not unreasonable, she said.
In an interview with Mteli Kvira Levan Gachechiladze has said that reports that the Minister of Interior and Minister of Justice also attended his meeting with the President are wrong. “If anyone in this country trusts me, I want to assure him or her that neither Vano Merabishvili nor Zurab Adeishvili attended this meeting. It was just Saakashvili and I sitting face to face,” Gachechiladze said.
Gachechiladze also denied that Saakashvili offered him the post of Tbilisi Mayor. “Of course not, there wasn’t even any discussion about the Tbilisi Mayor’s post. We talked about different issues. We discussed how we could depoliticise the police and I asked about Imedi. The President said that Imedi will not be returned t its owners because of the Russian factor, although he promised that some innocent people would soon be released from prison, including some political prisoners,” Gachechiladze said. However he did not specify exactly which political prisoners he meant.
Beaten opposition activists aren’t cooperating with investigators
Interior Ministry Spokesman Shota Khizanishvili says that despite the fact opposition leaders talk about their activists being beaten they have not made any specific complaints to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kviris Kronika writes.
“It is not true that detained opposition activists have been beaten. Opposition leaders have said this several times, but they have not come to the police with any specific case or made any official statement to us. We are conducting our own investigation, independently, into each detention, but during these investigations the detainees have refused to give evidence or cooperate with the police. They complain only on TV, not to the police. Therefore it is very difficult to conduct an investigation and identify if anyone has committed a crime,” Khizanishvili says.
Salome Zourabichvili tells diplomatic corps not to make statements
At an information meeting outside Parliament Leader of the Way of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili called on diplomats not to make the sort of statements they made after the attacks on MPs, Akhali Taoba reports.
“The Embassies were stirred up, and this is very strange for me, because I have lived in many European and other countries and have seen young people take protest actions, but when I was an Ambassador I never made such statements. This is interfering in a domestic situation, which Embassies have no authority to do,” Zourabichvili said.
The Way of Georgia leader insisted that the current Georgian authorities have no support from European countries or the American administration and she can prove this by means of the Ambassadors’ statements. Zourabishvili called on the Ambassadors to make more thoughtful declarations and not speak until they had met the opposition. The opposition’s struggle is peaceful and the actions of the young people were not unreasonable, she said.