Justice Minister Says NGOs Have been Caught Lying
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, November 23
Georgian Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani says that three Georgian top NGOs- the Transparency International Georgia, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy have been caught “telling a lie” regarding possible printing of identification documents by the Service Development Agency of the Justice Ministry to fabricate the upcoming presidential runoff on November 28.
Tsulukiani claims that the NGOs were either tasked or cheated by the United National Movement opposition to say that the Georgian Dream government is printing fake IDs to engineer the elections in favor of the ruling party supported presidential candidate Salome Zourabichvili.
“It is a fact that now the NGOs are in a serious trouble as they fail to provide any evidence in support of their allegations,” Tsulukiani said.
The NGOs stated at the special briefing on 20 November that a source from the Service Development Agency provided them with the information that a confidential meeting was held at the Service Development Agency on how to print five IDs for one individual to engineer the elections.
The NGOs stated that they had no evidence and did not name the source, only called on the law enforcement to investigate the issue.
They claimed that the head of the Service Development Agency Soso Giorgadze was involved in the process.
Giorgadze responded to the allegations the same day by saying that the statements were “absurd” and abuse of his staff.
“It is even theoretically unimaginable what the NGOs say,” Giorgadze said and addressed the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the allegations.
Heads of NGOs and Giorgadze have already been summoned for questioning.
The office said that the NGOs refused to name the source and they failed to provide any evidence proving their words.
The office says that the NGOs are not cooperating with the investigation while Giorgadze and his staff have provided the evidence proving their truth.
“Giorgadze was not in Georgia at all that time mentioned by the NGOs [referring to the time, last week, when according to the NGOs a meeting was held in the agency],” the office reported.
NGOs say that if they name the source his/her life may be at risk.
