Georgia's Parliament Speaker slams Brussels over “fake” campaigns to free Saakashvili

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili criticized the European Union and its representatives for what he called “dishonest and politically motivated” campaigns surrounding former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s imprisonment.

“When someone tries to find even a grain of fairness in Brussels’ recent accusations against Georgia, let’s not forget — this is the same Brussels that fabricated Saakashvili’s dementia and tried to extract him from prison through diplomatic demarches, until the Strasbourg Court put an end to the fraud,” Papuashvili wrote on social media.

He claimed that prior to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling, “Brussels spent nearly two years attacking Georgia’s judiciary, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Justice, Parliament, and the state as a whole.”

Papuashvili also accused EU-funded NGOs of spreading false medical reports and pushing narratives that “the government is killing Saakashvili on orders from Russia.”

Referring sarcastically to the former president as “the world’s first patient cured of dementia,” Papuashvili asked: “Has anyone heard an apology from Brussels or its ambassador? Any sign of regret for falsely accusing us? Of course not.”

He concluded that the EU’s failure to acknowledge its past “fabrications” has directly contributed to the “current disinformation campaigns” against Georgia.