Shalva Papuashvili on Giorgi Gakharia: It’s the first time I’ve heard of someone going to scheduled meetings without having a return ticket purchased – the man disappeared in the blink of an eye

"Immunity is not some kind of divine armor; Parliament can lift it with a simple majority – they’ve basically been skipping Parliament this entire time, so of course, they will lose their mandates," said the Speaker of Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, while speaking to journalists about the suspension of Giorgi Gakharia’s parliamentary mandates and immunity.

According to him, “When people elected by the public have essentially been playing hooky (‘on shatalo’) this whole time, naturally, they will lose their mandates.”

“Immunity is not some kind of divine shield — Parliament can lift it by a simple majority. So there’s no issue there, and there never would be, if a member of Parliament commits a crime and the Prosecutor’s Office has the necessary evidence and submits a motion. We've lifted immunity before — including at Giorgi Gakharia’s insistence when we removed Nika Melia’s immunity. So immunity does not protect criminals.

As for the mandates – they effectively annulled them themselves. Parliament will make a decision regarding the suspension of their mandates. When people elected by the public — who had support in the 2024 elections — betray their voters and have been on ‘shatalo’ the entire time, of course they will lose their mandates,” Papuashvili stated.

The Speaker also commented on Gakharia, saying that “this man vanished in the blink of an eye.”

“As for him hiding from the investigative commission and unexpectedly leaving the country — even his fellow party members can’t say when he’ll be back. It’s the first time I’ve heard of someone going to scheduled meetings with only a one-way ticket and no return. Isn’t that absurd? In his case, you could say he disappeared in the blink of an eye — let’s see what happens.

It turns out that the image his followers tried to paint — of a brave, courageous man — is actually someone who simply sneaks away when he feels there might be challenges. I don’t know what he was afraid of, but just as he was afraid in 2021 and ran away from Georgian Dream, it seems now he’s afraid again and ran away from his own party. There’s nothing to be afraid of — he could’ve attended the investigative commission; it was a regular environment. I don’t know what the issue was that prevented him from showing up and giving explanations. Since he’s so afraid, the commission even agreed to a remote hearing — and we’ll hear from him tomorrow,” Papuashvili concluded.

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