“The decision made by the Paris Court of Arbitration in favor of Georgia yesterday once again demonstrated to everyone, both in Georgia and abroad, why the Georgian opposition is involved in politics. It emerged once again that Lelo, the UNM satellite party, is, in fact, an organization set up solely for the purpose of fraud, the pursuit of foreign interests, and causing damage to the country,” the Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili responded to the ruling by International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
“We have repeatedly informed and warned our citizens, our voters, the people of Georgia, that behind those impassioned and highly emotional speeches by Lelo spokespersons lie interests that are harmful and deleterious to Georgia.
The decision of the Paris Court of Arbitration effectively undermined Lelo as a party and Khazaradze-Japaridze as politicians, since the entire background of the creation of this party was tied to following three postulates:
1. Georgia allegedly intentionally derailed the project;
2. Georgia allegedly harmed Khazaradze-Japaridze’s company;
3. The criminal case against Khazaradze and Japaridze was allegedly unfounded.
With these three accusations, they tried to present themselves as victims and pretend to be fighters for justice.
However, four years after the party was founded, national and international courts completely dismantled Khazaradze-Japaridze’s political fraud.
1. The Paris Court of Arbitration confirmed that the project was derailed by the Khazaradze-Japaridze’s company itself, without any state involvement. I would like to remind everyone of what Khazaradze-Japaridze demanded from the state once they failed to secure sufficient investment: they wanted the state to guarantee their profits using the state budget, i.e., public funds. This meant that if they failed to obtain the desired profit from the Port of Anaklia, they would receive this amount on every occasion from the state budget. Accordingly, their goal was to set up a business scheme that would guarantee them profit at the expense of the population of Georgia.
2. The Paris Court of Arbitration confirmed that not only did Georgia cause no damage to Khazaradze-Japaridze’s company, but on the contrary, they owe the state budget 650,000 USD. I would like to remind the public that with several amendments made to the contract, the state extended the deadlines for the Khazaradze-Japaridze company on several occasions and forgave more than 11 million USD in penalties for breach of contract.
3. As regards criminal prosecution, Khazaradze-Japaridze were found guilty of fraud by a legally binding judgement. It should be emphasized that the Paris Court of Arbitration did not question the lawfulness of their criminal prosecution. I will remind everyone that in the context of this case, they claimed that, as if through old friendship, Avto Tsereteli lent them 17 million USD, which he just happened to have lying around, and which he coincidentally received from Khazaradze-Japaridze’s bank the day before. And, also coincidentally, it turned out that this 17 million USD was ultimately written off as bad debt and never returned to the bank.
The decision of the Paris Court of Arbitration is another link in the chain of court rulings that the National Movement always loses because it acts against its own country as well as the truth.
We all remember the cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which the National Movement has already lost numerous times: the cases of Rustavi 2, Melia, Gvaramia, Saakashvili, the lawful dispersal of demonstrations, and others.
On every occasion, it is proven that the Georgian state, its governance, and its justice system operate in line with the best international standards. Similarly, on every occasion it is proven that the Georgians and foreigners who attack the Georgian state and justice system are motivated solely by the interest of harming our country and our people.
Ultimately, it became clear what was the real reason for Khazaradze-Japaridze’s entry into politics, the foundation for the creation of the Lelo party and, more recently, the true purpose behind the union with other small parties and pseudo-politicians of the non-governmental sector: it is obvious that the said purpose was to create a political entourage for financial machinations, obtaining money from the budget, and getting even richer at the expense of the people.
Fortunately, everything was revealed before Khazaradze-Japaridze could once again deceive a portion of the populace in the run-up to the October elections.
Lelo and its unions are just as fake as the myth created by Khazaradze over the years about the harassment of the Anaklia Consortium by the state.
The fact remains that Khazaradze asked the people for their votes and 1.5 billion USD. The Paris Court of Arbitration refused them the money. Now it is the people’s turn,” Shalva Papuashvili stated.
