The messenger logo

The News in Brief

Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Prepared by Messenger Staff

PM Irakli Gharibashvili Compares Giving Mikheil Saakashvili Human Rights Award as Giving Prize to Breivik

According to Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, the prize given to Mikheil Saakashvili in Norway does not mean anything, on the contrary, it is a 'mockery' of the Georgian people.

Gharibashvili made a reference to the 2011 terrorist attacks by Anders Behring Breivik that killed 77 in Norway, and said that Saakashvili 'killed hundreds of people' during his presidency.

"Some kind of human rights award was given. This is a mockery, this is unbelievable, therefore, of course, it does not mean anything. It's about the same. because there is such an attitude from that organization in Norway, in Norway you remember that Breivik killed a lot of people, it's about the same story that some country gave Breivik an award. It's the same for me. Hundreds of people were killed directly," Gharibashvili said.

"People were tortured, raped, tormented, killed by the criminal system and what a mockery of our people and insult it is that the well-known authoritarian, almost dictatorial ruler - former ruler Saakashvili - who was the creator of the oppressive, murderous system, was awarded in the field of human rights," he added.

On March 25, at the Conservative Party Congress in Norway, Mikheil Saakashvili was awarded Norway's Sjur Lindebrekke Award for protection of human rights and democracy.



Mikheil Saakashvili Responds to PM Gharibashvili who Accused Him of Killing Hundreds

Mikheil Saakashvili published a statement on his social media page which reads that it is a lie that he is refusing to get help from doctors or the council and also responded to Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili's statement regarding his human rights award.

"It is a lie that I say no to doctors and the council, we have been waiting for the EU council for three weeks, which the Georgian government doesn't allow entry," Mikheil Saakashvili said.

"I usually work with the clinic's endocrinologist and he has no complaints with me," Saakashvili noted.

In his statement, Saakashvili wrote that no one doubts that he will not find justice.

"For so many years, they want to label me as a murderer, but they cannot say who and where I killed. Girgvliani's case was a case of tying to pardon, fabricated from beginning to end. That is why authoritative international organizations recognize me as a political prisoner. The schizophrenia of this gang has already reached its highest point, and I think no one doubts that I will not find justice.

The only hundreds who were killed by the Georgian state forces during my time were the Russian interventionists who crossed our border in 2008. It is about these massacres that the Russian Prime Minister talks about.

They started their rule with my absurd accusations and they are ending with the same thing," Saakashvili's statement reads.