Ex-PM Kvirikashvili Slams Gov’t Over Saakashvili Videos, Treatment

Former Georgian Dream Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili slammed today his erstwhile party colleagues over their treatment of inmate Mikheil Saakashvili and the dissemination of his forced prison hospital transfer video footage.

Kvirikashvili said the release of videos insulting Saakashvili’s dignity and “especially, guffaws at Russian TV channels [over these scenes] do insult each and every Georgian and damage both the country and its government.”

The former Prime Minister asserted that sarcastic mockery of an inmate, irrespective of his behavior, “is incompatible to both Georgian and in general, Caucasian customs.”

He also called for providing the former President with the quality of medical treatment as demanded by his doctors. “This is, first and foremost the matter of dignity for the Georgian Dream and then that of the country.”

“Because, irrespective of how we evaluate Mikheil Saakashvili’s personality and his political legacy, he is nevertheless the former President of Georgia,” Kvirikashvili concluded.

In his missive, the former Prime Minister nevertheless defended charges and sentences against Saakashvili, noting that verdicts against the former President were passed not just by the Georgian courts, but also backed by the European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg-based court. He also negatively evaluated Saakashvili’s presidency, citing his government’s inability to avert the Russian occupation as his major political failure.

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