‘No Additional Immunity for Candidate Patarkatsishvili’

The authorities have no plans to grant additional immunity for presidential candidate Badri Patarkatsishvili, officials said on December 13.

Business tycoon Patarkatsishvili’s election campaign office had requested the authorities to provide additional, written guarantees for his security so that he could return to Georgia to launch his campaign.

Although the Georgian General Prosecutor’s Office suspects Patarkatsishvili of conspiring to overthrow the government, he has immunity as a presidential candidate. The Central Election Commission (CEC) can, however, remove this immunity if prosecutors provide justified reasons for doing so. The CEC must consider such a request and issue a final decision within three days.

“All candidates enjoy equal rights and can, if they want, arrive and participate in the elections,” Davit Bakradze, the state minister for conflict resolution issues and a Saakashvili campaign spokesman, said on December 13. “No state official can promise more or less than envisaged by the law.”

Eka Tkeshelashvili, the justice minister, also said on December 13 that there was no legal ground for granting Patarkatsishvili additional guarantees. She said Patarkatsishvili’s demand was just “a pre-election trick.”

MP Valery Gelbakhiani, a Patarkatsishvili campaign office spokesman, said that he wanted foreign diplomats accredited in Georgia to mediate in the dispute. “It seems that the authorities simply do not want Patarkatsishvili to run his campaign in Georgia,” Gelbakhiani said.

Officials, however, dismissed the allegation and called on the Patarkatsishvili campaign office to desist from “speculating on this issue.”

Patarkatsishvili currently spends most of his time between London and Israel. His campaign office said a few days ago that he would return to Tbilisi on December 14.

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