Day: October 6, 2023

Hearings of the Constitutional Court of Georgia on impeachment of the president

The Constitutional Court of Georgia has finalized the hearings of the parties on the impeachment of the President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili, which were held for three days. The opinion of the CC should be published in due time within the next two weeks.

If the CC recognizes the violation of the constitution by Salome Zurabishvili, the process will already fall within the competence of the Parliament. In order to declare impeachment of the President, the ruling Georgian Dream party does not have the necessary support at this stage.

Salome Zurabishvili herself was not present at the sessions. Her interests were represented in court by former Vice Speaker of the Parliament Tamar Chugoshvili and former Constitutional Court Judge Maia Kopaleishvili.

The plaintiff’s side was represented by the chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze, head of the parliamentary committee on legal issues Henri Ohanashvili and MPs Giorgi Kakhiani and Tengiz Sharmanashvili.

“It depends on your decision whether the constitution of Georgia will be preserved. At this stage, the question arises depending on your decision – will Georgia remain a parliamentary republic or will it turn into an undefined hybrid system?”, Irakli Kobakhidze addressed the judges in his closing speech.

“They [the current authorities] don’t even care whether the constitution was really violated or not, their concern is purely political, they are angry and dissatisfied with the president of Georgia and want to remove her from office. I really hope that the Constitutional Court will not interfere in the political process” – said Maya Kopaleishvili.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that President Salome Zurabishvili was “let in everywhere” but then she lost confidence. By his own explanation, he told European leaders about the impeachment and “they understood it”, but said that what was happening looked extremely “ugly”.

• Will the Georgian authorities be able to declare impeachment of the president, and why did they go for it?
• I’m not going anywhere, you should stop dreaming about my resignation’ – Georgian president

On September 1, 2023, it became known that the ruling Georgian Dream party started impeachment proceedings against the president. It was stated that the president had grossly violated the constitution when she made several visits to foreign countries without the consent of the government.

In particular, we are talking about three working meetings: August 31 with the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, September 1 with the President of the European Council and September 6 with the President of France.

Zurabishvili stated that she makes foreign visits on her own funds and lobbies abroad to grant Georgia the status of a candidate for EU membership.

Constitutional Court Chairman Merab Turava told reporters that the president’s representatives will not be able to elaborate on the president’s visits, they will only answer legal questions.

Inside the opposition, they do not rule out that the Georgian Dream will manage to recruit some opposition representatives and gain the 100 votes needed for impeachment.

The commander of the Georgian Legion has been put on the wanted list.

The Russian Interior Ministry has put the commander of the Georgian Legion fighting in Ukraine, Mamuka Mamulashvili, on a wanted list. This was reported by Russian government media with a reference to the Russian Interior Ministry.

Mamuka Mamulashvili himself reacted by writing on social media, “Surprisingly, they have surpassed the (Georgian) dream.”

“The Georgian Legion is a military unit fighting on the side of Ukraine and consists of Georgian volunteers and professional soldiers. The Legion was created after Russia invaded eastern Ukraine. Its commander is Colonel Mamuka Mamulashvili.

In February 2016, the Georgian Legion officially became part of the 25th Motorized Rifle Battalion of Ukraine and is now part of the Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

The Georgian Legion, in the ranks of which, in addition to Georgian volunteers, representatives of other nationalities also fight, has about two thousand soldiers

According to the Russian Interior Ministry, “Mamulashvili, who was prosecuted in absentia in Russia as part of the case of recruitment and participation of mercenaries in hostilities on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces, is wanted under a criminal article. However, it is not specified under which article.

At this point, the Russian Interior Ministry reported that two criminal cases were opened against Mamuka Mamulashvili in Russia. He is accused of “recruitment of mercenary fighters” and “incitement of hatred towards the army.”

Mamuka Mamulashvili himself has repeatedly explained that all these statements are lies and their purpose is to discredit the unit fighting on the side of Ukraine.

More than 70 members of the Georgian Legion were charged in absentia in Russia. The Russian Investigative Committee said that Georgian Legion fighters had committed crimes against Russian servicemen. According to representatives of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Mamulashvili publicly declared his intention to torture and kill Russian soldiers.

• “Members of the CANVAS organization conducted training on overthrowing the government in Georgia” – Security Service
• Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denies involvement in alleged planned coup d’état in Georgia
• “Georgian Security Service statement is written in Russian and is related to our activities” – Georgian Legion leader

On the morning of September 18, the Security Service of Georgia issued a statement saying that the country wanted to repeat the scenario of the Ukrainian Euromaidan and forcibly change the government.

The authors of the coup plan were named:

Giorgi Lortkipanidze, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, who was deputy interior minister under Saakashvili’s government;
Mikhail Baturin, a former security guard of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili;
Mamuka Mamulashvili, commander of the Georgian Legion fighting in Ukraine. During Saakashvili’s presidency, Mamulashvili was a member of his inner circle.
The Georgian SGB claims that Canvas Georgia is being used to prepare anti-government protests in Georgia, with the Serbian organization Otpor at the center of the whole process.

Mamuka Mamulashvili, commenting on the statement of the SGB in a telephone conversation with the Formula TV company, says that it was directly dictated by Russia and is primarily related to the activities of the legion in Ukraine, so “Georgian-Russian authorities” are trying to discredit it.

Georgian Legion commander put on wanted list