President Responds to Tbilisi City Court's Decision on Mikheil Saakashvili's Case
By Liza Mchedlidze
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
The President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili responded to the Tbilisi City Court's decision to deny Mikheil Saakashvili the postponement or release of the sentence on February 6.
According to the statement released by the administration, the president does not and cannot discuss the justice/injustice of this decision, but the political evaluation of this decision is up to everyone. According to her, the only thing that is clear with this decision is that the Georgian people were sentenced to go around in a closed circle and remain 'hostage' to this situation.
"Unprecedented discrediting of the country continues, it prevents us from developing our relations with our partners in the right way, it prevents us from expressing our solidarity towards the Ukrainian people and the country during this most difficult trial, which damages the Georgian tradition, prevents us from our recognized European perspective, prevents us from working on the 12 recommendations and to fulfill it, therefore to receive the status of our candidate.
The country is hostage to this one and only issue. At this time, all other crucial issues for us are not even discussed at the public level today. The necessary strategy is not being developed by the government - neither on the growing trends of the outflow of our manpower, mostly young people, nor on the mass influx from Russia and preventing its possible threats.
A completely offensive question and doubts arose about us - for the largest part of our population - whether Georgia follows its declared orientation or returns to Russia's orbit.
The country's reputation was damaged, trust was shaken, our place in the new geopolitical context became uncertain. That in itself could be dangerous if Russia believed that we had lost the clear support of our traditional partners.
This kind of discrediting is the result of the joint efforts of the ruling party and the opposition: on the one hand, the government's rhetoric, stubborn decisions and incomprehensible leniency towards Russia (excessive caution when mentioning Russia, persistent rhetoric of evasion of sanctions, or a positive assessment of the resumption of flights) which contrasts with a strict attitude towards Ukrainians and our partners and often offensive criticism. On the other hand, messages damaging the country's reputation by some representatives of Mikheil Saakashvili's family, which turned into a well-planned and implemented campaign (selective and unjustified identification with Putin's Russia and Navalny's imprisonment, mention of Auschwitz), were no less damaging, beyond the 'humanitarian positioning'.
No presidential pardon can help this mutual discredit, because it is only an expression of the individual and personal will of the president, and not a sign of a new approach of the regime or a real depolarization, which Europe demands from us. Considering the statements of the former president and as a result of his unrecognized and unrepentant crimes, it is expected that, in case of his release, he will become an active opponent, not only of the government but actually of the country's reputation and therefore of its European chances.
The responsibility for plunging the country into this state is shared equally between those who convinced the former president to enter and those who let him in and actually don't let him out anymore.
The authorities managed to practically remove the European way and the implementation of the 12 recommendations from the political agenda," the statement reads.
Zourabichvili wrote that everyone should stop speculating and playing with the future of this country, take responsibility and stop damaging the country's image.
"This issue should be removed from the Georgian political space and this country should be given the opportunity to breathe, live, develop and receive the status of an honored candidate of the European Union! This is the will and order of the people of Georgia towards their government, and no one has the right not to do everything to fulfill this will," she said.
