Zurab Noghaideli on Sandro Girgvliani: Saakashvili wanted Vano Merabishvili to be dismissed from the position of Minister of Internal Affairs and for us to be appointed as Minister of Finance. The next day, the decision was made to keep him as Minister of Internal Affairs

If you are asking me whether I take political responsibility for these events, of course, I do, - this was the response of former Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli to the question of the chairperson of the temporary investigative commission, Tea Tsulukiani, during the session of the Commission, which was about the relationship between him and the third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, in the context of the Sandro Girgvliani case.

As Noghaideli noted in response to the same question, Mikheil Saakashvili had already decided to appoint Vano Merabishvili, the Minister of Internal Affairs, as Minister of Finance during the time of the murder.

"I did not discuss this matter with the ministers, but I did several times with the president. We discussed this issue in detail when it became public. At some point, the day before, the decision was made to dismiss Vano Merabishvili from his position. This is what we talked about, because he wanted to dismiss Vano Merabishvili from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and appoint us as Minister of Finance, to which I categorically refused. I told him that if this happens, I would not continue as Prime Minister. However, we parted in the evening with him having already made the decision to dismiss Vano Merabishvili from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I believe this was in February. Although the final decision had not been made, I thought that there would be a new Prime Minister and a new Minister of Finance. However, the next day, for some reason, I do not know what influenced the decision, he decided to keep Vano Merabishvili as the Minister of Internal Affairs. This is the development of events during those days and my involvement. I asked why the decision changed, but I never received a specific answer. Clearly, if you ask me whether I take political responsibility for these events, of course, I do," said Zurab Noghaideli.

In addition, Zurab Noghaideli responded to the question of why he dismissed the State Minister for Conflict Resolution, Goga Khaindrava, who had several peace initiatives and had to leave the position together with his deputy, Gia Volski.

According to Noghaideli, this decision was related to the issues with the other four members of the cabinet at the time.

"This decision was not directly related to the peace process or Goga Khaindrava's work in this direction, but rather it was an issue of relations with the other four members of the cabinet. It was not necessary that the peace process would not develop in a normal direction at that time. In my opinion, this is not directly related. However, unfortunately, the subsequent ministers could not realize Goga Khaindrava's initiatives and possibilities," said Noghaideli.