Shalva Papuashvili: Architects of the fascist regime claimed at Nuremberg that abuses were isolated incidents rather than state policy; UNM is repeating that defence verbatim

“At the Nuremberg trials, the architects of the fascist regime claimed that these were isolated excesses rather than state policy. Now, the United National Movement is repeating that same argument word for word,” Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said.

According to Papuashvili, unlike during the Nuremberg trials, an established international legal framework now exists through which Mikheil Saakashvili’s dictatorial regime can be formally judged.

“If nothing else, the Strasbourg court’s ruling explicitly uses the word ‘systemic’ regarding torture in prisons. A direct legal verdict has been delivered establishing that these abuses were both systematic and systemic, and that an environment of torture was deliberately created within the penitentiary system.

Over the past few days, we have been watching the United National Movement’s testimonies. It is positive that the Constitutional Court hearings are not only proceeding from a strictly legal standpoint, but have also become another opportunity for society to deliver and reaffirm a political verdict. We are hearing live on air from the regime’s architects, defenders, apologists, and supporters, who still refuse to recognise the elections, deny that a system of torture existed, and state this before the court. They say, ‘Something was found in barrels; how do we know what it is?’

They claim this even though those crimes were exposed before the entire international community, with far more uncovered following the change of government. On the one hand, we saw the crimes committed by Saakashvili’s dictatorial regime; on the other, we saw how they documented all of it on video and other recordings, storing that material to blackmail both society and the individuals featured in those tapes. It is well known that they held such compromising recordings of members of their own team as well, and they did not hesitate to use them for blackmail,” Papuashvili said.