The Georgian Dream wants the EU to abolish visa-free travel for Georgia – there is no other explanation for the steps they have taken! It should be clear to everyone that the Georgian Dream is sabotaging the issue of visa liberalization! – this is how the Director of the Fair Elections, Levan Natroshvili, explains the decision to freeze the bank accounts of seven non-governmental organizations, including ISFED, based on the prosecutor’s office’s motion.
As Natroshvili noted in an interview with InterpressNews, the policy of the Georgian Dream in recent years only indicates that its goal is for Georgia not to become a member state of the European Union and to no longer receive the benefits that the country receives from the European Union.
As for the criminal case currently underway in the prosecutor’s office, Natroshvili stated that “Georgia has moved to a stage of authoritarian development when nothing is ruled out and anything can happen – including the criminal prosecution of leaders of non-governmental organizations.”
Natroshvili said that NGOs will use all existing legal mechanisms to protect their interests.
“This is another step taken by the Georgian Dream to destroy civil organizations. For this very purpose, a number of steps have been taken before – this is the adoption of various restrictive, undemocratic and unconstitutional laws.
This is a continuation of another step, about which we learned this morning that our accounts were seized.
There has been no communication with us from the Prosecutor’s Office. As you know, the Anti-Corruption Bureau was studying our issues. They wrote us two letters and we responded. We expected that everything could develop in this direction. Today we learned that the Prosecutor’s Office is also actively involved.
The content of the statement released by the Prosecutor’s Office is complete absurdity. What they are accusing non-governmental organizations of, on what grounds they have seized non-governmental organizations and on what grounds the investigation is underway, is clearly persecution on political grounds.
This is complete nonsense. The statement of the Prosecutor’s Office states that the legal assistance that our organization has been providing to citizens, including those participating in protests, for many years may be some kind of crime. This is complete madness!
All of this can be linked to the main issue that needs to be clarified regarding Georgia in the near future. This is the issue of visa-free travel to the European Union. As you know, the Georgian Dream has to make some progress in this direction until the end of the month. As you know, if there is no progress, such a radical step will be taken, which indicates that they do not want Georgia to maintain visa-free travel to the European Union.
This is actually direct sabotage! Georgian citizens should know whose fault it will be if this actually happens. The Georgian Dream’s concern is not to take responsibility for this themselves and blame everything on someone else – to blame the European Union, NGOs, political parties, everyone except themselves.
All this contradicts the Constitution of Georgia, Article 78 of the Constitution and the national interests of the country,” said Levan Natroshvili.
Levan Natroshvili: Georgian Dream wants the EU to abolish visa-free travel for Georgia – there is no other explanation for their steps! It should be clear to everyone that Dream is sabotaging the issue of visa liberalization!
