U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, believes complying with human rights requirements, with free and fair elections, with electoral reform is paramount.

Mtavari Arkhi reporter asked a question to Senator Shaheen regarding the cases of Nika Melia, Giorgi Rurua, Gigi Ugulava, and Khazaradze-Japaridze.

“I am not familiar with the criminal cases but the point is and one of the issues we reinforced with the folks we met today was the importance of complying with human rights requirements, with free and fair elections, with electoral reform, the importance of the April 19 Agreement with all parties participating so that they are moving forward together. I think that is very important for Georgia, it is important for all democracies…that democracies comply with certain requirements around human rights, around freedom are very important. So that is why I think those reforms agreed to the April 19 negotiation are very important,” Senator underscored.

U.S. Senator talked about the upcoming October elections saying that elections would be under scrutiny.

“Scrutiny from the international community and I think the US, we will be watching very closely and I assume there will be monitors sent from both Europe and the US to see how those elections move forward and again, that’s why it is so important to continue with the reform agenda, to continue with developing an independent judiciary, transparency so that people in the country can see what’s happening,” Senator stated.