Justice Minister: Georgians have a right to know who granted asylum to Zurab Adeishvili
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, April 17
Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani states that Georgians have a right to know which country provided Georgia’s former Justice Minister, currently wanted in Georgia, Zurab Adeishvili, with political asylum.
Tsulukiani stresses that removing Adeishvili from Interpol’s red notice is connected with a certain country’s support for the former minister, who is charged with several crimes.
“Currently, we have no information on which country gave asylum to him and protected an individual who allegedly committed various crimes.
“The letter received from Interpol focuses on the fact that Adeishvili was removed from the wanted list because he was given asylum,” Tsulukiani stated.
Tsulukiani informed that Interpol satisfied 20 of 28 requests Georgia submitted in 2011, and 13 of 15 in 2014.
The minister made this statement in response to the data released by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) about the Interpol statistics of 2010-2015.
"The point is that the extradition process takes a very long time,” she said.
According to her, the data for 2014-2015 will be reflected in next year’s figures, because "procedures launched today take a year to be completed".
According to the IDFI, based on the figures obtained by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office, in the course of 2010-2015 Georgia has referred to the Interpol General Assembly to impose a Red Notice in 131 cases. 121 of those applications were satisfied.
“Of the 28 requests sent to Interpol in 2011, only eight were denied, whereas in 2014 two motions out of 15 were not granted. One of these is still under consideration. In previous years, all motions filed by the Prosecutor’s Office were granted,” IDFI reads.
The NGOs emphasize that during the period of 2010-2015, the highest number of motions were filed in 2010 (59) – 34 of these were granted (57.6%). The ratio of motions granted by foreign law enforcement agencies was gradually decreasing year by year starting from 2012.
In 2012, the figure was 70.3%, in 2013 53.1%, in 2014 – 16.2%, as for 2015, the number was 9.1%.
The Prosecutor’s Office highlighted that the number of motions not granted are still under consideration, others have been denied for a certain period of time until circumstances hindering the prosecution are eradicated.
