A senior Georgian lawmaker has called on the European Union’s ambassador to Georgia to publicly comment on allegations of torture and inhuman treatment during the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili.
At a session of the Georgian Parliament’s temporary investigative commission on the actions of the United National Movement Government between 2003-2012, Thea Tsulukiani, the Vice Speaker and chair of the commission, urged the EU envoy to state whether the mistreatment of Sulkhan Molashvili – a former public official who died in 2022 – constituted wrongdoing.
The commission is examining claims made by Molashvili’s father, Tamaz Molashvili, who alleges that his son was subjected to torture while imprisoned in the early 2000s, including physical abuse, deprivation, and medical neglect. The elder Molashvili attributed the treatment to what he described as a campaign of personal revenge led by then-President Mikheil Saakashvili.
“Let [the EU ambassador] come forward and say just one word: is this good or bad?” Tsulukiani said during the session. “We are not asking for anything more. It would be good if he personally stopped worrying about Saakashvili and the National Movement.”
She further described graphic accounts of Molashvili’s reported mistreatment, including confinement in inhumane conditions, physical abuse involving cigarette burns, and the withholding of medical care.
