Ex-PM Garibashvili and his lawyer will struggle to prove the case is political, since the crime is real and he admitted it, Vice Speaker Volski says

“Neither Irakli Garibashvili nor his lawyer will find it easy to prove that his prosecution, arrest and trial are politically motivated, or that prosecutors have nothing but political motives. The facts are real, and he has admitted them,” said Gia Volski, First Deputy Speaker of the Georgian Parliament.

Volski said that, regrettably, real evidence had been presented and a crime had clearly been committed.

“The crime is plain to see, and not just this crime. Crime in general, when, in such circumstances, others from state institutions, such as the Defence Ministry, are also drawn into the criminal scheme. It will be hard to justify oneself, even though there is an element of tragedy in all this. A trend has emerged: if you commit a crime, say you steal 17 million from a bank and transfer it to an offshore zone, you have to declare yourself a political party or set up a party, and then claim the case is not happening because a crime was committed. They want to hide under a political umbrella. The same is happening in Garibashvili’s case. He has no other argument, and after long deliberation they decided to give the whole thing a political spin,” Volski said.

Asked whether Garibashvili had learned from Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze how to take money and then turn it all into a political case, Volski replied: “Yes.”