Ruling Party Claims Tatunashvili-Otkhozoria List is Almost Done

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze

Thursday, June 21

The parliamentary opposition criticized the government for not revealing the list of sanctioned people.

Archil Tatunashvili was tortured on February 23 and his body was handed over to his family only after about a month from his death.

The Georgian Dream ruling party members claim that the Tatunashvili-Otkhozoria list, which must include the names of those torturing and killing Georgian citizens in the country’s occupied territories of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali, is almost done.

The parliamentary majority made the statement in the wake of the opposition’s criticism that the list has not yet been presented in the legislative body for approval.

“We have had consultations with all actors regarding the Tatunashvili-Otkhozoria list. The list is apparently ready and the government has expressed its readiness to submit to the parliament immediately after the approval,” the majority leader Archil Talakvadze said.

“Killing Archil Tatunashvili was assessed by both the government of Georgia and the international community as a major violation. The work has begun to continue pressure within the international formats on the country [Russia] which is responsible for human rights violations in the Georgian occupied territories,” Talakvadze added.

On May 21, 2018, the parliament of Georgia adopted a joint resolution on the case of Archil Tatunashvili, who was reported dead in unclear circumstances in occupied Tskhinvali on 23 February.

The resolution condemned Russia’s actions in the occupied territories of Georgia, made a series of demands on Russia and envisaged the creation of a sanctions list of individuals who have violated the rights of Georgian citizens in the occupied regions of Georgia.

Another name in the list, Otkhozoria, refers to the Georgian citizen Giga Otkhozoria, who was also brutally killed by Russians in 2015.

Russia-controlled Tskhinvali refuses to hand over the killer of Otkhozoria to the Georgian government and also refuses to return the internal organs of Tatunashvili for Tbilisi to find an exact reason of his death.

However, autopsy in Tbilisi confirmed Tatunashvili was severely tortured.

Creation of the Tatunashvili-Otkhozoria list was initiated by the European Georgia parliamentary opposition.