Georgian PM: Saakashvili could be questioned in court
By Sabina Idayatova
Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili does not rule out
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's examination in the
court.
"Many presidents have been examined in the courts in Europe and I think that President Saakashvili should accept this with understanding," Ivanishvili said at the meeting with editors of newspapers and TV channels on Wednesday.
Ivanishvili deems that Saakashvili could be questioned on the case of the August, 2008 war between Georgia and Russia, when Moscow crushed a Georgian assault to reassert control over the two rebel regions -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- and later recognized the breakaway regions.
"I think it was unjustifiable to start military actions before Russian [troops] crossed into Georgian borders," he said, civil.ge website reported.
Ivanishvili said that tensions and shootings in the South Ossetian conflict zone in the lead up to the 2008 war were not serious enough to require large-scale involvement of the Georgian troops.
"I think that the cause of this war must be investigated," Ivanishvili said. "There are a lot of questions on this issue. I think that this investigation will not cause damage to our image as the society needs the truth and we should live with truth and we should not be afraid if the society knows the truth... We should clarify what happened."
Ivanishvili stressed that he has a lot of questions, noting that
investigation of the war
was also the obligation of Georgia as it's a participant state to
the Rome Statute under which the International Criminal Court was
established.
"It's not a whim of our government... It's our international obligation," Ivanishvili said.
Recall that the Georgian Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani said on Apr.8 that the prosecutor's office would investigate August war-related allegations, that the president and other officials can be questioned.
Furthermore, the Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania said
in his interview to the Channel 9 on Tuesday that in the coming
days his office will initiate assessment of military actions
carried out during the 2008 war, interpressnews.ge reported.
According to Alasania, it would not be a political assessment:
particularly they will investigate how the reserve has worked and
why it failed to evacuate the villagers.
Alasania said that questions arise in connection with the needs for
which the Georgian army have spent eight billion, and what led to
the military defeat. However, he said that, Russia's launch of war
is out of question.