Shalva Papuashvili: The creators of the fascist regime claimed that what was happening were isolated excesses, and the 'National Movement' is repeating the exact same thing - the hearings in the Constitutional Court are another opportunity to deliver a political verdict

"At the Nuremberg trials, the creators of the fascist regime claimed that what was happening were isolated excesses and individual cases, rather than state policy — the 'National Movement' is repeating the exact same thing word for word," said Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, commenting on the ongoing proceedings in the Constitutional Court regarding the banning of opposition parties.

According to Papuashvili, the ongoing review is not only a legal process, but also another opportunity for society to deliver a political verdict.

"Unlike the Nuremberg trials, there was an international legal framework available to obtain a legal assessment of Mikheil Saakashvili's dictatorial regime. Leaving everything else aside, there is a ruling by the Strasbourg Court in which the word 'systemic' is explicitly written when it comes to torture in prisons. A legal verdict has been delivered stating that a systemic and systematic environment of torture was created within the penitentiary system.

We are observing the speeches of the 'National Movement.' It is important and good that the hearings in the Constitutional Court are not only a legal process, but also another opportunity for society to deliver a political verdict.

From the creators of the regime, their defenders, flatterers, and supporters, we are hearing live—and they are declaring before the court—that they do not recognize the elections, and they do not recognize that a system of torture existed. Regarding what was found in the barrels, they say, 'How do we know what that is?'—this, at a time when the exposure of these crimes took place in front of the entire international community. After the change of the regime, we saw, on one hand, what crimes Mikheil Saakashvili's dictatorial regime was committing, and then how it documented all of this through video or other recordings, and how it stored them so that it would later have a means of blackmailing society or the people who were in those recordings. It is well known that they had such recordings of their own team members as well, and they were blackmailing their own team members too," Shalva Papuashvili stated.