Public Defender Lomjaria: ruling party chair accusations “unfounded, slanderous”

Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria says that today’s statements of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party head Irakli Kobakhidze, that the ombudsperson “represents the War Party (the United National Movement) and aims to drag the country into the Russia-Ukraine war,” are “political, slanderous and unfounded.” 

“I am doing my job. Kobakhidze’s statements were purely political, unfounded and slanderous. These are political attacks, while there are no qualified arguments that would put the Public Defender’s conclusions over (imprisoned) former President Mikheil Saakashvili under the question mark,” Lomjaria stated today. 

She said that protection of human rights is considered a guarantee of peace in democratic countries around the world. 

“In a country where human rights are not protected, there is a threat to peace. I believe that  with my work and duties, I serve this very purpose. To date, we have not heard a grounded counter-argument over the conclusions of the ombudsperson,” Lomjaria noted. 

Kobakhidze said that Saakashvili returned to Georgia to drag the country into the Russia-Ukraine war, suggesting that everyone, including Lomjaria, who had been demanding Saakashvili’s transfer abroad for treatment served the goal. 

A medical concilium under the country’s Public Defender said yesterday that Saakashvili,who was arrested in October 2021 in Tbilisi, had a serious protein deficiency, and that the current environment hampered the recovery of the former president.