NGOs react to summoning of ex-President Saakashvili by Prosecutor’s Office
We would like to respond to the statement of the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, released on March 22, according to which the ex-President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili is summoned for questioning as a witness on several cases. Without a doubt, each and every citizen of Georgia, including the former President, is equal before the law and, if necessary, has to cooperate with investigation. However, considering a special public interest, this process should be as open and transparent as possible. It’s important to rule out the suspicion that there has been any political pressure which can harm the country’s image.
At this point, there are several factors that could cast a shadow over an impartial investigation. We believe that the Prosecutor’s Office must provide the public with more information about why the necessity of Saakashvili’s interrogation arose only now and why it is necessary to question him about multiple cases all at once.
We believe it’s important to take the internal and external context into consideration in this case. Georgia, as well as the entire region, is facing particular foreign threats. Considering that on one hand, the EU Leaders announce the acceleration of signing Association Agreement with Georgia and on the other hand, the new approaches are expressed about NATO enlargement process, it’s important to make sure that our strategic partners won’t perceive former president’s questioning as a politically motivated action and this won’t have a negative impact on Euro-Atlantic Integration of Georgia.
The questioning of ex-President could be related to the pre-election process. The prosecutor's office should explain why it was necessary to summon the president only a few months earlier before the elections of local self-government.We believe that the procedural actions towards the representatives of Opposition and former high-ranking officials will have a negative impact on free and fair election process. We believe that the investigative agencies should refrain from such actions towards the leaders of opposition parties like they did last year. The latter will have a positive influence on pre-election process.
Transparency International Georgia
Civil Development Agency (CiDA)
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)
Georgian Democratic Initiative (GDI)