The elusive witness

Mikhail Saakashvili is not tuning to answer the questions of investigators

The decision of the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia to call former President Mikhail Saakashvili for interrogation as a witness in several criminal cases provoked disputes in parliament, in the press and even led to street clashes. The former president refused to return for interrogation to Georgia and communicate in absentia with the investigators of the prosecutor's office.

Mikhail Saakashvili refused the so -called "remote interrogation" by Skype as a compromise exit from the situation that had not appeared after he did not appear on Thursday to the prosecutor's office to testify in several criminal cases. The prosecutor’s proposal about the “distance interrogation”, the ex-president commented in Kyiv, after meeting with former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko:

- Apparently, they were frightened by international pressure and changed the forms. They were well explained by Europeans and Americans, what it could result in. Following the example of this lady - Yulia Tymoshenko - is obvious how similar campaigns end and the use of the prosecutor's office. In reality, in the country, the processes are not controlled by the one who calls himself the head of government. This process has no legitimacy. I have a lot of serious things to spend time on such nonsense of Russian oligarchs , ”said Mikhail Saakashvili, clearly having a billionaire Bidzin Ivanishvili.

On Thursday, at the building of the main prosecutor's office there were clashes between supporters and opponents of the ex-president. Saakashvili was supposed to appear at one in the afternoon. By this time, activists of the pro -Western organization "Youth Center" and young people who call themselves "political prisoners of the Saakashvili regime" came to the building. The police managed to prevent serious clashes. Several people were detained on both sides.

However, the fact that Mikhail Saakashvili will not appear for interrogation, that is, he will not come from the United States, where he has been living for several months, giving lectures at the Fletcher School of the University of Tafts, it was no surprise for anyone: the ex-president refused to cooperate immediately after the general prosecutor's office at a special briefing reported that Sakashvili was called for testimony for several criminal The cases, the agenda was handed over at the place of registration of his mother, professor of the University of Black Sea Giuli Alasania.

In a special statement, the prosecutor's office listed criminal cases in which Saakashvili is still appearing as a witness. First of all, this is the case of the death of the former prime minister of Zurab, discovered by the dead on February 3, 2005 in a conspiratorial apartment in the center of Tbilisi. In the same apartment, they found the body of a 22-year-old employee of the administration of the Kvemo Kartli region Raul Yusupov. In the Tbilisi press, the assumptions flashed that Mikhail Saakashvili could be interrogated almost on suspicion of murdering, but so far the investigation is really interested only in the oddities and inconsistencies that indicate that the country's senior leaders tried in every possible way to change the picture of what happened in the apartment on Saburtalo Street, where they found the bodies of the stamp and Yusupov.

In addition, the prosecutor’s office would like to interrogate the former head of state in the case of confiscation of their owners of Rustavi 2 television companies, Imedi and MZI, expensive gifts at the state expense of some members of the parliament, the intensity of property in favor of the famous businessman Kakha Bendukidze, as well as the uncle of the president, Timur Alasania, the liquidation of one of the organizers of the so -called so -called The "rebellion of the Mukhsovsky tank battalion" of Colonel George Krialashvili, an attempt to bankruptcy of the Carty Bank, owned by billionaire Bidzine Ivanishvili.

Finally, investigators are interested in why the president has mercy on senior officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - the defendants in the criminal case of the abduction and murder of an employee of the United Georgian Bank Sandro Girgliani.

Expert Georgy Khukhashvili did not deny me in a conversation that all of the above cases had a political resonance, but he considers the president’s call to interrogate precisely with the aim of establishing the truth:

- As for the need to call the president for interrogation, yes, there was a necessity. After all, we know how the system worked under Saakashvili: not a single criminal case with a political shade occurred without his participation. So the system worked. As for the attitude of Saakashvili himself to this issue - he once again proved that state thinking is not for him. It proceeds with purely selfish considerations and does not recognize the right. So after all, he himself created and boasted this system. Therefore, it does not go for interrogation, which knows best of all how the system created by him worked. He is afraid of his brainchild. That is, he is afraid of the monster he created, who is ready to devour him.

The associates of Mikhail Saakashvili according to the former ruling party "Unified National Movement", including the former Minister of Defense of Bachio Akhalai and ex-Minister of Internal Affairs Vano Merabishvili, as well as the former mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulav, or are those who were jealous of the listed criminal cases, urgently recommended not to return to his homeland.

Member of the Parliament from the UND David Darchiashvili explained to the RS why, in his opinion, the former president should not count on a fair investigation:

- Because everything comes from people (including the highest leadership of the government and the informal leader of the government), who are not interested in truth and not in objective justice, but in the struggle against political opponents. That is, neither moral nor political terms, President Saakashvili was not obliged to participate in this farce, ”said David Darchiashvili.

Now the main question is how the prosecutor’s office will act. On the one hand, the investigation may well make a decree on the “forced drive for interrogation”, and this resolution, in turn, will necessarily result in the requirement of the extradition of the ex-president. However, according to most experts, the Georgian authorities are unlikely to take such radical steps on the eve of the signing of the EuroAssociation Agreement, but in the future, after signing the document, the status of Mikhail Saakashvili may well change, and it is possible that he will turn from a witness to the accused.