“For merely throwing a ‘napkin’, a young man is detained, sentenced to years in prison, while at the same time, people are actually being beaten to death in front of television screens, and not a single person has been held accountable. This is what you call selective justice, when all major institutions act with bias and political partiality, many people will recognise this even without the Helsinki Commission’s assessment,” stated Irakli Pavlenishvili, a member of the United National Movement.

He added that the Helsinki Commission has every right to voice its opinion.

“Everything is quite transparent, and they haven’t said anything particularly new. The Helsinki Commission has always been noted for its friendly, solidarity attitude towards Georgia; in reality, they genuinely care about what is happening here. This isn’t interference. According to the same logic, no country should comment on another’s internal affairs when gross human rights violations occur; they should remain silent for fear of being accused of meddling. But the modern world doesn’t function like that, and it shouldn’t. Punishing a female politician, a mother of four, with a year and a half in prison for writing on an election banner with a felt-tip pen is absolutely unacceptable by any legal, moral, or political standards. I believe this is un-Georgian, illegal, and un-political,” Pavlenishvili concluded.