MP Wants Probe into Opposition Party’s Finances
Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Legal Issues Levan Bezhashvili said on October 13 that relevant state agencies should launch a probe into the opposition Conservative Party’s finances after party leader Koba Davitashvili admitted he received USD 20 000 cash as a campaign donation.
On October 12 Georgian television stations broadcast hidden camera footage showing a man named Aladin Mirzaev giving Davitashvili a bunch of money during a meeting in a Tbilisi restaurant. Davitashvili confirmed that he received USD 20 000 from Mirzaev, but denied that the money was meant to include this person in the party list ahead of local self-governance elections.
According to the law on political groups, the amount of financial or material donation received by a political party annually from a physical person should not exceed GEL 30 000 (about USD 17 100) and the transaction should be done through a bank account.
“If this was a party donation, then the law has been violated and the Justice Ministry should get interested in this issue. If it was a sum for the election fund, the Central Election Commission should react to it. At the same time, the laws and regulations on money-laundering and on money circulation have been violated, pursuant to which each financial transaction above GEL 15 000 should be controlled by the Financial Monitoring Service. These bodies should probe into the case and if certain violations are revealed they should apply to the prosecutor’s office,” Levan Bezhashvili told Civil Georgia.
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