Statement of the Coalition for Freedom of Choice about Imposing Fine on German Citizen Bidzina Giorgobiani by Chamber of Control

Party Funding Monitoring Service at the Chamber of Control fined German citizen Bidzina Giorgobiani with 900 000 Euro – double amount of the donation- for having illegally donated to the foundation Komagi. We would like to underscore several circumstances with regard to this fact.

1. Party Funding Monitoring Service at the Chamber of Control did not provide any evidence to prove that Bidzina Giorgobiani is associated with the Georgian Dream. Public statements of Mr. Giorgobiani or any citizen about political views can demonstrate only his/her political sympathy-antipathy and it cannot be valid evidence of direct or indirect connection of the person with a political party.

2. On May 17, the Chamber of Control released incorrect information stating that money was transferred from Germany by Bidzina Giorgobiani, secretary of foreign relations at the Georgian Conservative Party and member of the political coalition Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia. State institutions were aware that by time of money-transfer Giorgobiani was citizen of Germany. The government alleges that if a Georgian citizen received foreign citizenship, he automatically loses Georgian citizenship unless the president of Georgia grants him/her double citizenship. Thus, Mr. Bidzina Giorgobiani lost Georgian citizenship as soon as he naturalized into German citizenship. In accordance to the Law of Georgia about Political Unions of Citizens, “citizen of Georgia with the right to participate in the elections can establish a political party and participate in its activities.” Thus, Bidzina Giorgobiani could not be a member of any political party though the Chamber of Control alleged it. The state audit company should have known about this fact by time of making abovementioned statement or have applied to Mr. Bidzina Giorgobiani to find out the situation before making statement.

3. Bidizna Giorgobiani claims that “donation was made by German Foundation “Osteuropa – Medien & Gesselschaft” and he is executive director of the Foundation.” The Chamber of Control breached the law in this particular case too because it is entitled to prove illegality of the money transferred not by Giorgobiani but by the German Foundation and to impose the fine on the latter.

4. The Chamber of Control decided to declare Foundation Komagi with the coalition Georgian Dream on May 18, 2012 - one week after Bidzina Giorgiobiani had signed the document on money transfer. In doing so Bidzina Giorgobiani could know that Komagi shared the restrictions for political parties established in Georgia and illegality of this transfer. Additionally, based on May 18 decision the Chamber of Control sequestered bank accounts of the Foundation “Komagi” thus depriving both the donator and donate-receiver to improve the so-called violation.

Even these facts are enough to have grounded doubt about legality and political impartiality of this particular decision of the Party Funding Monitoring Service at the Chamber of Control of Georgia. Our suspicions are reinforced by the fact that the state audit company, which is making decisions to declare various entities to be associated with Georgian Dream at a high speed and fines them with astronomic funds, does not respond to numerous facts of violation by the United National Movement. Coalition for Freedom of Choice appealed to the Chamber of Control on May 3 and informed them about bribery of citizens by the ruling party that violates the requirements of the Law about Political Unions; they submitted relevant video-materials as evidence of their allegation. On May 7, the Chamber of Control just notified to us in a written form that they are studying the provided materials. Almost one month has passed since then but the audit company has not responded to it. Abovementioned circumstances allow us to declare that the Party Funding Monitoring Service at the Chamber of Control does not act in accordance to impartiality principle and it has become a punishment organization of only one concrete opposition coalition.

We call upon the Inter-institutional Commission of the Security Council to study illegal decisions passed by the Chamber of Control against Giorgobiani and evident violation facts by the National Movement, as well as inactivity of the Party Funding Monitoring Service at the Chamber of Control and to inform the society about their conclusions on the issue.

Coalition for Freedom of Choice