Foreign Ministry Rules Out Shaw’s Abduction Linked to Tender in Brussels

(Tbilisi, June 28, Civil Georgia) – Georgian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on June 27 to specify some of the details concerning the abduction case of British citizen Peter Shaw.

On June 18, when co-director of Agro-Business Bank Peter Shaw was kidnapped, the meeting of the tender committee of the Euro Commission was held in Brussels to find out the European company that would implement the new assistance project for the Agro-Business Bank.

The Agro-business Bank of Georgia (ABG) was created in 2000 and is a European Union (EU) funded project, and is the successor to the EU funded Regional Agricultural Reform Project (RARP1) credit component. Peter Shaw is the head of the experts’ group of assistance project of the bank in the frames of the Tacis (technical assistance program of EU).

On June 19 Georgian General Prosecutor Nugzar Gabrichidze said, while commenting on the abduction case, that the kidnapping of Peter Shaw could be linked to the tender that was held in Brussels. The new assistance project for the bank is of one million Euro amount.

Georgian Foreign Affairs Ministry states that this amount is not transformed directly to the recipient company, the sum is used for the consultations of the foreign experts that will assist the bank. The Ministry rules out that the abduction of Peter Shaw could be linked to the tender process.

The Foreign Ministry urges the Georgian mass media not to publish unconfirmed materials concerning the professional activity of Peter Shaw. Such material could harm relations between the Georgia and EU, the Ministry’s statement says.