A doctor of law of the University of Düsseldorf does not understand why a 250-year-old democracy criticizes his government for adopting an extremely restrictive law on free speech and having some department that puts people in prison for statuses posted on Facebook - this is how Tazo Datunashvili, one of the leaders of the Strong Georgia - Lelo party, responds to Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze's statement regarding the concerns expressed by the US Embassy regarding the creation of a "department for combating hate speech".

As Tazo Datunashvili states, as long as the government acts against the constitution and democratic principles, no one from the civilized world will talk to them.

“Either that diploma is fake and he never received it, or he has suffered such intellectual degradation that I think we should test this man on the alphabet. What don’t you understand, that people shouldn’t be put in prison for 2, 3 weeks for statuses written on Facebook? Because of this, a country that is a defender of free speech in the whole world will criticize you, don’t you understand that? The United States, as well as the European Union and the civilized world in general, have written in black and white to this gang of bandits what the gang of bandits should do in order to cease to be a gang and to resemble a state system again and Georgia to return to normal. They should repeal unconstitutional laws, stop political persecution and then someone will talk to them as civilized people. Until then, in the civilized world, they are considered outcasts, not considered full-fledged beings, because they act against the constitution, against democratic principles and, most importantly, are enemies of their own people in favor of Russia,” said Tazo Datunashvili.

For information, the US Embassy in Georgia responded to a question from Radio Liberty regarding the administrative detention of journalist Vakho Sanaia due to his status on a social network that it is concerned about the creation of a department to combat hate speech in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. For his part, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that the US Embassy's statement was completely incomprehensible to him. "Under the previous administration, the US Embassy was one of the main ones who artificially tried to incite hatred and propagate lies in Georgia," Kobakhidze said.