The Government Started the Process of Releasing Political Prisoners

Giorgi Laghidze – “The Government Got an Incomplete List of Political Prisoners”

Ana Sheshaberidze

The ministers of law enforcing bodies and several opposition parties met each other on August 12. The meeting was planned on August 6 during the Security Council meeting in the residence of the President of Georgia.

The leaders of all parties from the parliamentary opposition attended the meeting while only several parties from the non-parliamentary opposition attended the meeting. The ministers of all law enforcing bodies attended the meeting.

The opposition presented the list of alleged political prisoners during the meeting.

Giorgi Laghidze, a leader of the political party “Future to Georgia” (Saakartvelos Momavali), considers that the opposition presented an incomplete list of political prisoners to the government. He is discontented with this. “It [the opposition] gave the government the possibility to exercise selective justice and free only those political prisoners it [government] accepts when the opposition presented an incomplete list of political prisoners to the government,” said Giorgi Laghidze. He noted that the list of political prisoners which was presented by the opposition and the parties to which the released prisoners belong to, indicate that the government has some sympathy for Nino Burjanadze and Irakli Alasania.

“Unfortunately, the opposition did not raise the issue of releasing all political prisoners. The true political prisoners Zaza Davitaia, Maya Topuria, Temur Zhorzholiani, Vakhtang Talakhadze, Malkhaz Gvelukashvili…are not on the opposition’s list. They are true political prisoners and they must be released immediately,” said Giorgi Laghidze.

We asked Giorgi Laghidze why he did not attend the meeting of the opposition and the ministers. Giorgi Laghidze said that he wasn’t invited to the meeting. This is rather strange, because the meeting was open for everyone and every opposition party could attend the meeting and express his/her opinion. At least he could have sent his version of the list of political prisoners to the government through the Public Defender of Georgia. The latter attended the meeting but not with much enthusiasm.

Davit Managadze, a lawyer of the Human Rights Centre, explains that the meeting between the opposition and the ministers that took place on August 12 was not closed. The opposition parties could have named the prisoners they considered to be arrested on political grounds, when the list of political prisoners was being made in the office of the Conservative Party.

“There was a commission established for the creation of the list of political prisoners. The Conservative Party selected the names from various opposition parties and made the list. The opposition party representatives had weekly meetings on this issue. The parties could name the prisoners and explain why they considered them as political prisoners and then he/she could be placed on the list,” said Davit Managadze.

Managadze thinks that Giorgi Laghidze had the chance to work on the list and therefore, he thinks Laghidze expresses his protest rather late. Laghidze is planning to send a letter to the President to request the release of all political prisoners. Otherwise, he thinks the political crisis will deepen.

“The crisis will deepen in the country if not all political prisoners will be released,” said Laghidze.

The release of several political prisoners has already been decided after the August 12 meeting between law enforcing ministers and opposition leaders.