Ex-President Saakashvili: Stop treating people like fools; Gilauri whitewash is no political persecution

“It is utterly astonishing that anyone remains who still frames this whitewashing operation of Gilauri as ‘persecution’. So we are to believe the poor man could not scrape together a few million to lift the sequestration, forcing his house to be sold off, meaning he was punished for fighting for freedom?” wrote former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili in a social media post, posing several pointed questions.

“Politicians who took cash from Gilauri confirm receiving at least 20 million, while others claim he paid not 20, but 40 million to sabotage opposition unity. In any case, if he had that kind of money to hand out to parties, could he really not find four or seven million for his own home? And if he could not, it means those 20 or 40 million were not his; so whose were they?

The next question I want to ask: during this supposed ‘political persecution’, did the Gilauris lose Bank of Georgia? If not, did the bank’s profits at least drop? No, as it turns out, profits actually grew and surpassed two billion (yet the poor man could not find four million).

I want to ask one more modest question: does Gilauri no longer reside in his ‘sold’ house? Or did his closest friend, a certain Sturua who ‘bought’ the house, throw his buddy Gilauri out onto the street?

So now I want to ask thinking people: what does all this stink of? Do you smell the same thing I do?” Saakashvili wrote.

Furthermore, Saakashvili stressed that political wheeling and dealing can never be justified under any circumstances.

“Unity has no alternative, but it must be a unity built on principles. One of the core principles is this: no backroom deals with the tentacles of the dictatorship, and no giving those tentacles room to manipulate.

As for Gilauri, everyone needs to stop deceiving themselves and treating the people like fools. The truth is single and simple: backroom deals behind closed doors and political trading can never be justified under any circumstances,” Saakashvili concluded.