GPB Board of Trustees’ Chair: It is unacceptable to level accusations without court or investigation, especially in media and on behalf of EP

“Talk of sanctions is nothing particularly new. This is the fifth or sixth such attempt of this kind, and the subject has become somewhat fashionable over the past year and a half,” said Vasil Maghlaperidze, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Georgian Public Broadcaster.

Maghlaperidze commented on a demand by Members of the European Parliament, Mariusz Kamiński and Małgorzata Gosiewska, that senior figures of the Public Broadcaster be added to a sanctions list.

“As for the authors of this demand, however much we respect them, we have no hand in what they do; they are puppets carrying out an order or assignment to ensure that this story gets amplified,” Maghlaperidze stated.

He further suggested that the origins of this affair may lie elsewhere, but that everything is being cooked up from within the country.

“In their time, the so-called troikas operated in precisely this fashion; they would level charges without any court proceedings or investigation. I could do the same; I could level any accusation at anyone. I could allege, for instance, that someone has been paid off, and so on. Naturally, they would tell me to prove it. That is precisely why one cannot speak in such terms, least of all in the media, and least of all in the name of the European Parliament.

First, accusations of sanctions surface, followed by our appearance on various lists: sometimes one, sometimes another. Amidst this, letters are exchanged, individuals start their efforts, plead their cases, present arguments, and document crucial facts. Yet, it is striking how we speak as if a Member of the European Parliament were some exalted figure descended from heaven. They are ordinary people too, with their own weaknesses and political interests. The real tragedy lies in the frantic scrambling of these informers, and in the propagation of this ideology that someone from outside has told them what must be done, that someone from outside has told them a head must roll,” Vasil Maghlaperidze has said.