Tengiz Sharmanashvili: The only thing we could have expected from the United National Movement was remorse, but we have heard nothing of the sort; I would not be surprised if they declared Saakashvili a mythical character and claimed that such a man does not even exist

“The only thing we could have expected from the United National Movement was remorse, but we have heard nothing of the sort. This is a sign that if these people remain in politics, they will repeat the same actions,” Georgian Dream MP Tengiz Sharmanashvili told journalists.

According to him, representatives of the United National Movement have no arguments to offer, nor could they possibly have any.

“Of course, they now want to get themselves off the hook. We have heard such extraordinary things that we are probably all astonished. Apparently, during his presidency, Saakashvili was nobody within the United National Movement. Adeishvili was nobody, and Vano Merabishvili was nobody. It has gone so far that I even joked that I would not be surprised if they declared Saakashvili a mythical character and one day claimed that such a man does not exist at all. How can anyone adopt such an attitude?! The entire Georgian public is watching this, after all! The judges are hearing it too, so how can they possibly make a serious impression?

Then they will wonder why the corresponding verdict is delivered. The worst thing is that they show no remorse whatsoever. In other words, they are saying that nothing happened.

Tsulukiani questioned the credibility of one testimony, saying it was unconvincing. But what about the dozens of criminal convictions confirmed by the courts? What do they have to say about those? What about the European Court of Human Rights rulings, which mention systemic crimes in numerous cases? These are not just references in the rulings of our national courts.

Call it amnesia or whatever else you want. The fact remains that they have no arguments, nor could they possibly have any.

The only thing they could have shown was some sense of remorse. They could have said: ‘Perhaps that was what I intended, but things did not turn out as planned; I went too far; I made a mistake.’ But you will neither see nor hear anything of the sort.

What does this indicate? It indicates that if these people remain in politics, they will repeat the same actions. A person who does not understand their own wrongdoing will inevitably repeat it,” Sharmanashvili said.