UNM MP accuses police of abduction
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, August 11
Member of Parliament Giorgi Karbelashvili stated that he had been abducted by the police for 6 hours and says that it was by the order of Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili.
Karbelashvili is the member of the opposition party United National Movement and until 2012 he was holding the post of supervisory board chairman of Georgian Air Navigation.
He was detained by the police at night on August 8 and was released from Gori Police Department the following morning.
According to the MP, the incident happened in village Kvishkheti, Shida Kartli region, where dozens of police officers stopped his car and took him in the direction of Tskhinvali. He says he was detained for 6 hours and he was not aware of his whereabouts.
Karbelashvili says that he was physically and verbally abused. He added that according to police officers, it was the order of PM Gharibashvili.
“This was a deliberate provocation and kidnapping; I was sure that it was the scenario of my liquidation; the officers were treating me badly and they said Gharibashvili had given them their orders,” he stressed.
After his release, Karbelashvili went to Giorgi Samkharauli Expertise Bureau and was examined on his own initiative, for he says that he has many injures on the body.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has released a statement regarding the issue.
The statement reads that at Borjomi-Tbilisi highway officers of the Patrol Police stopped a car for violating rules of traffic movement, which was driven by the MP Giorgi Karbelashvili, who inflicted verbal and physical assault to the members of the patrol crew, when the officers requested the documentation from him and wanted to test him for intoxication.
According to the MIA, the MP and his companion E.B. were taken to the nearest police station and after conducting the alcohol test, which appeared positive, Karbelashvili was released.
The investigation was launched due to resistance, threat or violence against protector of public order or other government representative, article 353, part 2 of the Criminal Code of Georgia.
Karbelashvili rejected all the charges and said that he was going to sue the authorities to reveal the truth.
