Irakli Kobakhidze criticizes US Embassy assessments on the wiretapping law
By Liza Mchedlidze
Friday, September 9, 2022
Chairman of Georgian Dream Irakli Kobakhidze called the assessment of the US Embassy on the law on wiretapping "misinformative" and "polarizing". He said that he hopes that the US Embassy will pay more attention to its positions in the future.
"Such statements, disinformation records, of course, encourage polarization in Georgia. If the goal of our partners is depolarization in Georgia, of course, they should avoid making such polarizing statements. Moreover, we see that the radical opposition immediately uses it to polarize the situation. This is very sad and regrettable," said Irakli Kobakhidze.
According to the Georgian Dream chairman, the statement of the American Embassy contains "two wrong references".
"The first is that it is said that the law does not comply with European standards, which is a lie... No one has been able to provide a legal notice, especially no one who has said which standard is violated. Ask any of them which one standard is violated, including the embassy and no one can tell you anything. They have not been named yet. It's been six months since the changes were made and not a single legal note has been made, which is one unfortunate lie that slipped into the embassy's statement.
Another sad, heavy thing is written. I don't know if you want to call it a lie, but it should be taken seriously as if this law was deliberately passed to control the citizens. This is also incomprehensible because in English it is written monitoring, in Georgian - control. There is a difference even in the translation, these terms are similar in English. Citizen control is what this law is not really about. It is about the control of criminals and it is disturbing when the statement of the American Embassy equates criminals and citizens of Georgia.
This law is written very strictly. Everything is precisely defined, including deadlines, the procedure for extending deadlines, and categories of crimes. The law applies only to the category of rather serious crimes, and when these serious criminals and potential criminals are equated with Georgian citizens, it is, to put it mildly, misleading. I don't know why such mistakes are regularly made in the embassy's statement. This is very hard for us," said Kobakhidze.
The US Embassy in Georgia wrote that the law on wiretapping adopted by Georgian Dream contradicts the recommendations of Western partners and the conclusion of the Venice Commission. According to the embassy's assessment, the purposeful adoption of such a law, instead of bringing Georgia closer to Europe, distances it from it.
According to the opinion, the surveillance mechanism of covert surveillance measures in Georgia is inadequate and a comprehensive review of the existing covert surveillance systems is needed.
