Press Digest 30.12.14
Red notice for Saakashvili?
2015 - A year of paramount reforms and changes
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Red notice for Saakashvili?
"Our lawyers and political experts doubt that Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor will manage to achieve his prime objective to put Saakashvili on Interpol’s wanted list. According to them, it’s a rather tough task to negotiate,”- reports the Rezonansi newspaper.
“Our Prosecutor’s Office plans to send Saakashvili’s case materials to Interpol’s National Central Bureau in the immediate future. If we believe Giorgi Badashvili, they will quadruple efforts to achieve their goal.
As you know, Mikheil Saakashvili refuses to cooperate with the government which is why charges against him were leveled in absentia. He was also sentenced to imprisonment.
Today, he is wanted nationwide and Georgia’s chief Prosecutor’s Office has already petitioned Interpol to put him in the internationally wanted list,”- says the article.
Acting Ambassador to the U.S., Nicholas Berliner, responded to Badashvili’s desire to declare the Georgian ex-President wanted by Interpol and advised him to focus on the future only.
“We are following the current developments in Georgia carefully, and we strongly recommend that the present Georgian authorities deflect their gaze from the past and focus on the future only,”- declared Mr. Berliner.
“Interpol puts people on the international wanted list. We are fully entitled to evaluate Interpol’s decisions; we cannot in any way influence these decisions however,”- claimed Justice Minister Tea Tsulikiani in response to the appeal of the U.S. Ambassador to Georgia.
The minister also expressed hope that they will fulfill their intention to put Saakashvili on Interpol’s wanted list soon.
However, Human Rights defender Amiran Giguashvili doubts that Badashvili’s intention will ever come to fruition.
“First they must assure Interpol that this or that politician is not a victim of political persecution, and the international community is deeply convinced otherwise.
Hence, in order to make Interpol declare Saakashvili wanted, the Prosecutor’s Office will have to present them with very strong evidence,”- concludes Mr. Giguashvili.
2015 - A year of paramount reforms and changes
“According to our political experts, 2015 will be a rather tough year for Georgians. Snap elections, reforms and external threats are the daunting challenges that the country will most likely face,”- reports the Rezonansi newspaper.
“Given the current situation, our political experts think that the pending political processes will soon shake the country. Allegations go that in 2015, reforms, with all accompanying positive and negative consequences will be passed in all fields.
Some say that new political payers may emerge in our political scene soon. However, as experts say, 2015 will prove to be more or less a positive year for our agriculture, trade and industries,”- says the article.
Politician Vakhtang Dzabiradze thinks that one key challenge the country will have to address next year will be the necessity to hold early parliamentary elections.
“Unfortunately, in the coming year we will have to resolve the issues we failed to tackle in 2014.
The Georgian people are expected to adopt a more antagonistic stance against the Dream Government which will soon be left with no other way out but to hold early parliamentary elections, its only chance to remain in power,”- Mr. Dzabiradze said.
“One of the leaders of Free Democrats, Maia Panjikidze, focuses on the Government’s mistakes and stresses that in 2015, the country will have to address a great number of daunting challenges.
According to her, the acting authorities made numerous inexcusable mistakes the ripples of which will be felt in the country soon. She also shares the prediction of 2015 being a tough year for Georgia,”- concludes the author of the article.
