Fourth President Margvelashvili calls allegations “dirty lie” on getting money for lobbying Saakashvili’s release

Georgia’s fourth President Giorgi Margvelashvili has called “dirty lie” to allegations by the members of the ruling Georgian Dream party on getting 11,000 dollars to lobby for the release of the currently imprisoned third President Mikheil Saakashvili. 

 

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the head of the ruling party in the Parliament, on Monday claimed Margvelashvili had obtained the funds from the US-based law firm Akerman, hired by Saakashvili’s family to lobby for the release of the former official. 

 

The disclosure of the firm with the US Department of Justice, as part of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, said earlier this month Margvelashvili headed the coalition in Georgia to save the life of Saakashvili”. A piece with the exact same title was published on Bloomberg, with a hint under the title that it was a PR Newswire. 

 

In the section of the FARA document where Margvelashvili was mentioned, nothing was said about the payment to him. The document mentioned the press release distribution fee for the company that lobbied for Saakashvili’s interests.

 

However, the comments made in the ruling party gave the impression that at least part of the 11.5 thousand US dollars had reached Margvelashvili.

 

In his remarks on Monday, Margvelashvili said he had two comments – one serious and one joke. 

 

His serious comment was that the allegations were  a “dirty lie”, while the joke said “if I had decided to become a bribe taker in this elderly age, I would have been fundamentally offended by such a small amount”. 

 

The petition prepared on behalf of the fourth president of Georgia earlier this year, which was signed by dozens of politicians from different countries of the world, spoke about the responsibility of the current Government in case of the death of Saakashvili in custody.