Chairman Papuashvili Condemns MEP Austrevicius' Call for Sanctions on Police Officials as Attack on Georgian State
By Liza Mchedlidze
Thursday, April 25, 2024
The Chairman of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, has requested clarification from the Embassy of Lithuania regarding Petras Austrevicius' statement urging the European Union to impose sanctions on individuals "who undermine democratic processes in Georgia". Austrevicius specifically named Tbilisi police chief Vazha Siradze and Zviad Kharazishvili, director of the special tasks department, as targets for sanctions. Papuashvili characterized this as an "attack on the Georgian state."
According to Papuashvili, "attacks" by foreigners on the Georgian police and the Georgian state serve as ideological incitements to the violence occasionally witnessed against law enforcement officers.
"We saw a direct attack on the Georgian police from one of the members of the European Parliament, Petras Austrevicius. This MEP is a member of the representative parliament of Lithuania. An attack on the police is an attack on the Georgian state. It is important because he is a representative of the Lithuanian government party. It would be good if we would hear relevant explanations from the Lithuanian embassy as well, regarding what this attack on the Georgian police means," said Shalva Papuashvili.
Papuashvili said that a rally became violent, with attacks on journalists and police, objects thrown, and verbal abuse.
"We saw a rally that turned into violence. Among them, there were attacks on journalists and police officers; stones or other objects were thrown at the police. There was verbal abuse. It will remind you of what a certain group chanted and whose sentence was coined at the time. We remember all this from November 7.
There is a special investigation service that investigates such matters, but we saw different groups characterized by aggression. There was violence against the police, obstruction of journalists. We saw attempts, calls, including by representatives of NGOs, to picket the parliament while the work process was going on in the parliament. I will return to the statement of the European parliamentarians, the attacks by foreigners on the Georgian police, and on the Georgian state, are an ideological incitement to the violence that we later see against the police," Parliament Chairman said.
