Former Prosecutor Salome Adeishvili talks about sexual harassment, lawlessness and pressure in the institution
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Thursday, October 24
Former Prosecutor Salome Adeishvili published a post on her personal Facebook page about her resignation, talking about sexual harassment, lawlessness, and pressure.
According to the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia, Adeishvili served as a prosecutor from April 2013 to October 2019. An official investigation into the statement of Adeishvili has already begun. The office says they will study all the circumstances mentioned by her and will take appropriate legal action.
Adeishvili spoke about the reasons she left the prosecutor's office and discussed the problems of the agency. She noted that employees of the Prosecutor's Office were given illegal orders and were forced to execute them. Also, according to her, women are being harassed and not valued for their work.
Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia is awaiting the prosecutor's response. Speaking with reporters on October 23, the Prime Minister said that all such cases should be investigated.
"All cases of sexual harassment and nepotism must be investigated. First of all, I wait for the official prosecution's response. Of course, if this is true, it is unacceptable,” noted Gakharia.
According to the member of the European Georgia, Gigi Ugulava, “unfortunately, the Prosecutor's Office was not far from political persecution before, but under Ivanishvili’s rule, it is a tool of violence.”
As he noted, these people neither obey nor recognize any laws.
“There is only Ivanishvili, with Irakli Shotadze still in the audience, even though this man is no longer a prosecutor. It is a tool of political persecution, they think and make up new cases. The institution is completely degraded. And there is nothing shocking about it, after all, this is a violent tool in the hands of Ivanishvili,” noted Ugulava.
As Lali Tadumadze, mother of Adeishivili said with the Main Channel, she does not have information regarding how her daughter ended up writing this post, “I did not have any previous dialogue with her.”
According to Tadumadze, the only thing she knows is that her daughter left the country only because “she wants to take some time for herself.”
According to her, she is not anticipating any pressure from the state, and as for Adeishvili, she says that “she might have to answer some very important questions.”
According to the former prosecutor, Maia Mtsariashvili, Adeishvili’s allegations were not unexpected for her. As she said, the office has some problems that they need to work on. According to her, today, public service “stands on nepotism, favoritism, and corruption.”
According to Nika Melia, a member of the United National Movement, this statement shows that the state institution as a whole is destroyed. “The state institution stands for the service of a private person and is pursuing party interests, instead of the state interests.”
On the other hand, as the representatives of the ruling party says, “we should not talk about the whole institution according to the statements of just one person.”
According to Tamar Chugoshvili, the first deputy Speaker of the Parliament, there are special mechanisms that protect people against harassment, and those who face these kinds of problems can use these mechanisms with no problem.
Adeishvili wrote the post on her Facebook on October 22, according to the information of the Main Channel, she has already left the country.
