Georgian opposition parties and NGOs want to initiate impeachment and investigation against PM

Opposition against Garibashvili

Opposition parties and NGOs of Georgia intend to initiate impeachment proceedings and investigation against Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili because of the so-called “charter scandal”, in which, according to the initiators, Garibashvili exceeded his official powers.

Levan Samushia, a member of the opposition Lelo party, said the party is doing this because, in their opinion, Garibashvili committed the alleged crime and abused his official powers.

In addition, the opposition National Movement Party demands that Prime Minister Garibashvili be brought to legal responsibility. This was announced by the Chairman of the party Levan Khabeishvili at a briefing.

Leader of the opposition party “Agmashenebeli Strategy” Giorgi Vashadze says that the Prime Minister’s “charter scandal” is the peak of corruption.

Former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s party “For Georgia” demands an investigation into a possible corruption offense by Garibashvili. According to party members, the incident is another clear proof of why the government refused to establish an independent anti-corruption bureau. Gakharia’s party is also planning to introduce an initiative to parliament in the coming days that will reportedly expand the circle of relatives of officials who will have to explain the origin of their assets.

Gakharia himself says an impeachment would contribute to Georgia’s European future.

“At the end of October, Georgia is waiting for the evaluation of its candidate status for EU membership. The government wants impeachment of the president, the opposition demands impeachment of the prime minister. In fact, Bidzina is questioning Georgia’s European future. Thank Bidzina for ‘peace’,” writes Gakharia.

Non-governmental organizations also demanded the launch of an investigation against the Prime Minister and the release of documents.

What happened

On September 7, Nino Giorgobiani, the head of the Department of Strategic Communications of the Georgian government, released a statement that Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and his son traveled to the United States on a charter flight in August. According to her, the expenses were not paid from the budget.

Later the Department changed its statement regarding Garibashvili’s arrival in the US and presented a new explanation, stating that Garibashvili arrived in Europe by charter and left for America on a regular flight.

Yesterday in an interview with TV Pirveli Director of Georgian Airlines Tamaz Gaiashvili confirmed that his company delivered the country’s Prime Minister to Germany on a government airplane. According to his explanation, the plane was ordered to leave by the Prime Minister’s state security service. As Gaiashvili noted, the head of the State Security Service Anzor Chubinidze always orders airplanes for the government.

In addition, Gaiaishvili said, he does not know whether Garibashvili’s visit to Munich was of a personal or official nature, although in the same context he cites one of the visits of the country’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili to Germany, during which, according to Gaiaishvili, Saakashvili had a nose job.

“He is the Prime Minister of the country, not a factory worker,” Gaiaishvili said of Irakli Garibashvili.

Already today, the Department of Strategic Communications of the Georgian Government Administration published another post accusing TV Pirveli of deliberate misinformation for a past story about Garibashvili’s trip.

According to the department, the flight that the head of the government took to Munich was a commercial flight and neither travel nor any other expenses were paid from the state budget.

“The airplane on which the prime minister traveled to Munich is on the balance sheet of the State Security Agency, a public law legal entity of the Special State Guard Service. This agency has full right to receive revenues from state and budgetary structures, as well as from non-governmental, commercial and private persons. Such a flight of commercial type has already been performed many times,” the statement said.

• The Georgian government has changed its statement on the scandalous private trip of the Prime Minister to the US
• Will the Georgian authorities be able to declare impeachment of the president, and why did they go for it?
• “Rumors about the opening of the second front are disinformation” – What Borrell said after meeting with Georgian PM

“The documentation regarding Garibashvili’s airplane should be made public”

Chairman of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association Nona Kurdovanidze reacted to the information about Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili disseminated by Pirveli TV channel. According to her, the documentation regarding Garibashvili’s airplane should be made public.

“This is a very big problem. If the flight was not financed from the state budget, it can’t make things easier because it raises questions where the Prime Minister got such a big income from. The investigation should be interested in these questions. Declaration of ownership is not the form in which the public will get answers to such questions. Especially since the Prime Minister will have to fill it out in 2024,” Kurdovanidze writes.

According to the chairman of the association, the contract signed with the State Security Agency should be immediately publicized, and would confirm that the Prime Minister had indeed purchased such services.

NGOs to the Prosecutor’s Office: “Start an investigation, there are signs of a possible crime”

Six NGOs are calling on the Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia to “immediately launch an investigation based on the information transmitted by Pirveli TV company containing signs of a possible crime regarding the Prime Minister’s visit to the United States.”

“In order to satisfy the high public interest of the case, it is necessary for the legal entity of the public law of the state protection service – the State Security Agency – to make public the information related to the flight, including the contract with the signatures of the parties, as well as documents related to the calculation of the cost,” the report reads.

NGOs believe that the information disseminated in the TV Pirveli story should be the subject of investigation by state agencies in several areas:

• Taking into account the monthly salary of Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and his asset declaration for 2022, due to the possible disproportion between his income and expenses necessary to make commercial visits on an airplane on the balance sheet of the State Security Agency, it is interesting to know what the financial source of the Prime Minister is.
• Taking into account the growing tendencies of kleptocracy in Georgia, it is important that state bodies respond effectively to these and other facts, as this is not the first time that information circulating around the Prime Minister and his family members has led to abuses. Garibashvili’s position or related ability to obtain property or other services is questionable.

“As a result of kleptocracy, the enrichment of a certain group of people at the expense of the budget and the subsequent use of this wealth to maintain power undermines democratic institutions in the country,” the NGO said in a statement.

The signatory organizations are:

• Georgian Young Lawyers Association;
• International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy;
• Transparency International Georgia;
• Open Society Foundations;
• Guardians of Democracy, etc.

Head of Government Administration: “Prime Minister has never traveled on a private visit at the expense of the budget”

Head of the Government Administration, Revaz Javelidze, said regarding Irakli Garibashvili’s visit to the United States with his son that the Prime Minister has never traveled on a private visit at the expense of the budget and “is not going to”.

“I would like to make an unambiguous statement that the Prime Minister of Georgia has never traveled on a private visit, not in this particular case and is not going to travel in the future at the expense of the budget.

He has not violated the law of Georgia, he has the right to state protection. The campaign that is going on today is slander and lies.

It was a private visit of the Prime Minister of Georgia and he himself is responsible for the expenses related to this visit.”