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Irakli Kobakhidze Says We Must Separate Saakashvili's Friends from the Country Allies

By The Messenger Staff
Wednesday, November 17
“We must separate the friends of Mikheil Saakashvili and the friends of the country,” Chairman of the Georgian Dream party, leader of the parliamentary majority.

“We are talking about a small group. The vast majority of our international partners see and assess everything, including Mikheil Saakashvili's past, present, and future. There is a small group of lobbyists, including one of the MEPs who arrived in Georgia.

They have long been lobbyists for the criminal political force and share responsibility for crimes committed before 2012. We are talking about the following crimes: - Torture, inhuman treatment, handing over territories, and so on. They were lobbyists even at that time. Of course, if they continue such lobbying activities, we will have to call them patrons of criminals,” Irakli Kobakhidze said.

“This is very disappointing. We recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the ombudsman of Ukraine. She also had a very good working meeting with the Minister of Justice.

Nino Lomjaria stated that “it is disappointing that the Public Defender of Ukraine was not allowed to visit the prison of the former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.”

It is very unexpected and unacceptable that the ombudsman of Ukraine was denied permission to visit her citizens and enter the prison.

I would also like to say that the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine is a National Human Rights Institute, which means that this institution is recognized by the international community as fully complying with international principles and standards, which should be guided by the National Institutes of Human Rights.

I support the office of the ombudsman of Ukraine, and I think that Georgia, not only as a friendly country but also as a country that respects human rights organizations, should promote the transparency of this process as much as possible,” Lomjaria said.