Justice minister comments on former PM Merabishvili's questioning
By Sabina Idayatova
Georgian Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani has commented on the questioning of former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili regarding allegations over using a fake passport and attempting to illegally cross the state border, ghn.ge reports.
Tsulukiani said it was the right decision not to detain Merabishvili, because he was accompanying the president of Georgia.
She believes the investigation will ascertain the truth.
"Merabishvili was not detained in the airport and was not even kept for long because he was accompanying the president and commander-in-chief of our country," Tsulukiani said. "Whether or not it was a method for Merabishvili to cross the border more easily, you should ask him. As far as I know, law enforcers at the Interior Ministry got interested in this issue. But the fact is that the Interior Ministry made the only correct decision not to detain the former prime and interior minister for the simple reason that he was accompanying the president of our country."
Merabishvili was questioned at the Interior Ministry as part of the investigation into the supposed use of false documents and attempted illegal crossing of the border, georgiaonline.ge reports.
"On November 30, 2012 Merabishvili arrived in the Tbilisi international airport as a member of the state delegation heading to Yerevan. During passport control, an employee of the presidential protocol service submitted to a border officer Merabishvili's passport. A border officer found that the passport with the photo of Merabishvili was in fact issued in the name of Levan Maisuradze," the Interior Ministry said in a statement last Saturday, and also posted a snapshot of the passport on its website, showing Merabishvili's photo and the holder's name as Levan Maisuradze, georgiaonline.ge reports.
Merabishvili, who served as Interior Minister for years and is considered the architect of successful police reform, did not talk to journalists when leaving the Interior Ministry.
"My coming here was symbolic. My heart is full of pride when I see the patrol police. It's a shame that PM Bidzina Ivanishvili uses the Interior Ministry and the police as a repressive machine against the opposition," Merabishvili told journalists in front of the ministry's building before the questioning.
The Georgian Interior Ministry said that in order not to disturb the official delegation's visit to Yerevan, the authorities did not detain Merabishvili and he was allowed to present an authentic passport and leave the country. Investigators also said that upon his return the same night, Merabishvili left the airport in the presidential motorcade, which made it impossible to enforce legal procedures against him.
President Mikheil Saakashvili responded to the accusations against Merabishvili on his Facebook page saying that Merabishvili was part of the delegation led by him and participated in the summit of leaders of the European People's Party Eastern Partnership member countries, organized by the party.
"He participated in all official meetings, including a face-to-face meeting with the president of the European Commission. The story, already familiar to the public and created by [someone's] sick imagination, started after that," Saakashvili said.
"In itself, the notion that Merabishvili would use a fake passport to travel in an official delegation is so absurd that it's hard for me to make any comment on it. The idea that Merabishvili, who is known to everyone in Georgia, would try to cross the border with a fake passport, issued in some else's name, to then hold open meetings in front of all of European media's cameras, could come to the mind of only a very unreasonable person," he said.
"I strongly support the democratic principles of governance, which have been established in Georgia, and I express concern in connection with the facts of political persecution. However, I hope that the relevant responsible people in the country will stop this absurd investigation against Merabishvili," Saakashvili noted.
Bidzina Ivanishvili's government came to power following the October 1 parliamentary elections. Since then, 29 members of the former government, members of Saakashvili-led United National Movement have been detained, including former high-ranking officials. The US administration, NATO, EU and others have called upon the new Georgian government to stop arrests and make sure the arrests are not perceived as "selective justice" and "political retribution". The new Georgian government says all the cases were part of a criminal investigation and had no political basis, georgiaonline.ge reported.