Strong Georgia - Lelo demands that international experts be involved in the investigation ongoing into the investigative material prepared by the BBC at the State Security Service.

As the Executive Secretary of Strong Georgia - Lelo, Tazo Datunashvili, stated at the briefing, the international standard in all civilized countries states that such investigations should be open.

“The assumptions have raised many question marks in society. For a week, instead of the process moving forward and providing answers to the questions raised, on the contrary, all branches of government are involved in order to raise additional questions for the Georgian society and create more ambiguity.

Despite the fact that Georgian Dream is trying to show us at an extreme pace that it has investigated this issue in detail, the briefing that was held at the State Security Service and announced the completion of the so-called investigation, raised even more question marks in society.

The issue is about the health of Georgian citizens, the fact that the authorities may have used actions to disperse the rally, the use of which is simply inhumane. The way out of this crisis is the openness of the process. These questions will be answered if the entire process is open. In all civilized countries, the international standard says that such investigations should be open.

Secondly, in order for Georgian citizens to have confidence in the process, international experts should be involved in this process, specifically the involvement of the World Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to the convention of which Georgia is a signatory state and violation of which may be revealed in the event of a full-fledged investigation. We call on the authorities not to raise additional questions on this issue,” Datunashvili said.

For information, according to the BBC, the evidence collected by them suggests that Georgia's authorities used a World War One-era chemical weapon to quell anti-government protesters last year. The BBC World Service spoke to chemical weapons experts, whistleblowers from Georgia's riot police, and doctors, and found the evidence points to the use of an agent that the French military named "camite".

According to the State Security Service, on the night of December 4-5, the substance "chlorobenzylidene malononitrile" was used to control the crowds, which was dissolved in a solution of "propylene glycol". According to them, none of them belong to the prohibited category – as for "camite", it has never been purchased by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.