We have not handed over the purchased equipment to the rally participants. We purchased it for our employees – this is a fully justified expense, – Levan Natroshvili, Director of ISFED, said on Palitranews, while discussing the investigation launched by the Prosecutor’s Office against some NGOs in the so-called sabotage case.
In response to the Prosecutor’s Office’s statement on the aforementioned case, which spoke about the fact that some NGOs purchased certain equipment for the rally participants, Natroshvili noted that it is impossible to equip a rally of 100,000 with up to 30 items.
“I think the Prosecutor’s Office answered this question itself when it published the invoices, the procurement documents that related to the purchase of these items. The quantities indicated there, in our case, were up to 30, were purchased for the employees. This already excludes what was said in the statement, that someone was organizing something and distributing things to the participants of the protest rallies. It is impossible, literally, to equip a 100-thousand rally with 30 gas canisters.
This is a completely justified expense. Not a single donor has had any complaints with us in this regard. Equipment was certainly not given to the participants of the rally. These are quite expensive items. We have limited funds and we did not give anything to the participants of the rally. Again, we purchased these items for our employees. This was purchased when very serious raids and a very difficult situation had already occurred. After that, the purchase took place when we saw that it was simply impossible to even stand there,” Natroshvili said.
According to him, the accusation of attempted sabotage against the country is “completely absurd.”
“We had no role in planning the protests. I would even say more, no one had this role. In this case, we are talking about the protests that took place in the spring and later, after November. These protests were, in fact, public protests. There were no organizers there. There were various very diverse groups, ordinary people who were not connected to any organizations.
Obviously, this part is already problematic, no one was organizing the protest. No group and no organization really has the resources, scale or authority to bring 100 thousand people to the streets. People understood the risks and dangers that accompanied the steps that the Georgian Dream took. Therefore, they came out and protested. Our answer to this is that we were ordinary participants and, in addition to that, we were observing the rallies as representatives of human rights organizations,” Natroshvili said.
According to him, the Prosecutor’s Office has no evidence against non-governmental organizations other than the purchase of several specific pieces of equipment, and “if they had, they would have made it public by now.”
“If there had been any other [evidence], they would have said it and made it public by now. Unfortunately, this is not difficult for them. In general, if we look at how this process took place, it was very well planned, including the information provision.
Their goal was to take the policy that they have been pursuing towards civil society for several years to the next stage and, in fact, completely restrict financial resources for these organizations. In addition, to force us to stop our activities,” Natroshvili noted.
According to Natroshvili, it would be naive to say that it is impossible to arrest representatives of government organizations. As he explained, “we should expect everything.”
“Given the history that has been going on in the country, especially over the past year, it would be naive to say that it is impossible to arrest or charge someone. Unfortunately, we should expect everything. The Georgian Dream team, which is currently in power and is trying to consolidate this power as much as possible, is ready for anything. We are ready for this. We have been expecting certain steps to be taken against us for a long time. Of course, we have been preparing for this. This is something that we cannot actually change. If they have made a decision to hold someone accountable, what should we do? We are not going to flee the country,” Natroshvili said.
In addition to the above-mentioned topic, Natroshvili also spoke about the decisions made against those detained during the protests, including, in some cases, acquittals. According to him, it is important that “there are even such small concessions” from the Georgian Dream.
“A few people have been acquitted and it is important that there are even such small concessions and that we somehow get the Georgian Dream to make at least small concessions. It seems that this is being done deliberately to show their voters that the court is not biased and in some cases even acquits people. It may also be the result of pressure, both from within the country and from outside it,” he said.
In addition, Natroshvili spoke about the rally planned by some opposition parties on October 4, noting that their NGO “has no connection with such type of rallies.”
“Of course, we also see that certain groups are planning certain activities. This is a normal story, part of the normal political process. If any action goes beyond the framework of the law, of course, we will say about it,” Natroshvili noted.
Levan Natroshvili: We purchased equipment for our organization’s employees and did not give anything to the protest participants – it is impossible to equip 100,000 protesters with 30 gas canisters
