MP Vika Pilpani: MP status is no indulgence for crime, nor are sporting titles licence for violence

“Violence will remain systemic until it is punished within the very individuals and structures responsible for enforcing the law,” MP Vika Pilpani, member of the Gakharia for Georgia party, wrote on social media.

“On June 26, a pre-planned, organised, gang assault was carried out against Members of the Parliament of Georgia, right before the eyes of the Prime Minister, the Prosecutor General, and the Minister of Internal Affairs. As of yet, there has been absolutely no response.

Violence will remain systemic until it is punished within the very individuals and structures responsible for it.

No parliamentary mandate provides an indulgence to commit a criminal offence. Nor are sporting titles a free pass to perpetrate violence.

It is precisely the impunity enjoyed by high-ranking officials that fuels systemic impunity!

In a country where criminals and law enforcement officers commit gang crimes side-by-side, the principal architect of this is the government itself, along with the MPs who are themselves committing crimes!

Mzia Amaghlobeli has been in prison for a second year now, for one reason alone: she responded with a slap to an insult from an unworthy ‘man’ hiding behind a police uniform!

Khoshtaria is in prison solely because she used a felt-tip pen to write a completely non-offensive message on a 100-lari banner!

Young men of 20 and 21 are locked up in prison simply for standing at a protest!” Pilpani wrote.