Saakashvili Comments on Police Reshuffle in Shida Kartli

At an emergency meeting of the Georgian National Security Council President Saakashvili said that police officials in the Shida Kartli region, which borders breakaway South Ossetia, are cooperating with Ossetian “separatists [who] are engaged in trafficking smuggled goods” in the region.

“I think the situation with the contraband is alarming in [Shida] Kartli… the chiefs of the police departments of the local districts in [the Shida Kartli region], directly, or indirectly, are taking part in the restoration of channels for smuggling,” Saakashvili told the members of the Security Council in a section of the session which was broadcasted by the various Georgian television stations.

Aleksandre Sukhitashvili, the Chief of Police of the Shida Kartli region, and his deputies were sacked on March 13. Beso Giorgashvili, the Chief of police of Kareli, another town in the Shida Kartli region, was arrested for alleged links with smuggling in the region.

“It seems that a clan – “Gori [the main town in Shida Kartli] police mafia” – is established there,” Saakashvili said.

“I urge you to study all the evidence precisely… until the probe into their activities is finished, all police chiefs of all the districts [of the Shida Kartli region] are dismissed,” he added.

He instructed the Interior Minister to set up special units to control all the routes used for smuggling goods from South Ossetia into the rest of Georgia.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)