Exhibition of Palaces of High-Ranking Officials Continues

“If the suit is brought to the court, we will confirm that those palaces really belong to them,” said the Head of the Public Movement “NO” Levan Chitadze.

“During his speech in the Parliament of Georgia, President Saakashvili asked a member of the parliamentary minority Guram Chakhvadze, who spoke about elite corruption in the country: “Look at the governmental officials and tell me who of them is corrupted?” Chakhvadze was either confused or was ashamed and finally told the president that there is middle elite corruption in the government but could not mention any member of the central government because he did not have evidence. So the president’s question provoked the public movement “NO” to show to society and the president who constructed the palaces after they came into the government. The court shall answer the question – how did the owners of those palaces earn the money to build them? Do those palaces really belong to governmental officials?” wrote the newspaper New Generation in its article “Security Guard of Bezhuashvili’s Demanded That I Delete Photos”/ “New Exhibition Will Be Made in Two Weeks”.

“Chakhvadze said that deputy ministers are corrupted; and those people were arrested, instead Saakashvili and the ministries. Chakhvadze praised the current government and admitted that we have a perfect regime where corrupt governmental officials are arrested. We already knew we had information about those palaces. We had information about Merabishvili, Tsiskarishvili and decided to search every palace, take photos of them and then exhibit them to answer Saakashvili’s question regarding who is corrupt within his government? The opposition members could not answer his questions but we took this responsibility,” said Levan Chitadze.

“We took as many photos as we could manage within five days. We photographed the palaces of several officials – brothers Bezhuashvilis (Gela Bezhuashvili - Head of Special Intelligence Service of Georgia), Chocheli (Mtskheta-Mtianeti regional governor), Kezerashvili (former defense minister of Georgia), Baramidze (Vice-Prime-Minister; State Minister for the Reintegration in European and Euro-Atlantic Structures of Georgia). We took photos of Bakradze’s palace (Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia) who has his registered in his father-in-law’s name. Saakashvili is building a palace for his wife Sandra. A governmental official, an ally of Baramidze, suggested we check the information and blamed us in spreading rumors. However, we filed applications to the Public Registration Agency and requested information about the addresses but they said this information is unavailable. We were able to get a hold of the personal information. Our friends assisted us; the population also provided us information as to who lived in those palaces. We immediately checked the collected information at the Public Registration Agency but they did not satisfy our requests; then we started to interview neighbors,” said the respondent of the newspaper New Generation.

“None of the abovementioned officials have mentioned those houses in the property declarations. For example, Tsiskarishvili has not registered his house on Kazbegi Avenue; neither Bezhuashvilis have mentioned their house on Kazbegi Avenue in the declaration though it might have been registered on the second brother. Neither Kezerashvili nor Bakradze have mentioned their houses in their declarations. We do not expect the president to react on these findings – he will not make any statement about it; it is impossible. We expect those officials to make statements. I expect them to deny information but if they do not do it, that means they admit to their corruption. That means, Vano Merabishvili should arrest himself and it is excluded. I offer those officials face-to-face debates. If they want they can sue me because I can prove that those palaces belong to them. I have audio-recording of the workers who built those palaces. We did not record neighbors or strange people in order to preserve their confidentiality. If they appeal us, we will show the audio-recordings. However,  at this point we are not going to publish them. For example, Giorgi Arveladze has many villas in Kiketi; many palaces in Tabakhmela and Tskhvarichamia (resort-places). Next week we start working in Tabakhmela and the next exhibition will be organized near parliament or in Tskhvarichamia,” said the head of “NO.”

Photos:
1. House of Bezhuashvilis – Al. Kazbegi Ave. 7, Tbilisi
2, 3 House of Davit Kezerashvili – near Tbilisi Reservoir
4. House of Caesar Chocheli – Kojori 
5. House of Vano Merabishvili – Sikharuli Street, Tbilisi
6. House of Petre Tsiskarishvili – Al. Kazbegi Ave. 42, Tbilisi
7. Resort-house of Bezhuashvilis – Kojori
8. The president is building house for the First Lady