Opposition MPs Outline Proposal on Property Rights Bill

A group of opposition lawmakers said on February 14 that they have elaborated a draft law providing additional guarantees for the protection of property rights.

The group, which includes three parliamentarians, MP Kakha Kukava of the Conservative Party and non-partisan MPs Koka Guntsadze and Gia Tortladze, said at a joint news conference that their proposal involves ?total financial amnesty? and stripping state structures of the right to confiscate private property.

?All the administrative bodies, except for the courts, should be deprived of the right to unilaterally confiscate property without a court ruling,? MP Kakha Kukava said.

After talks between three key opposition lawmakers and President Saakashvili on February 6, MP Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of the New Rights Party and participant in the talks, said that the president pledged to initiate a draft law within two or three weeks as an additional guarantee of property rights.

However, there were conflicting stories of whether or not this was true. ?The president himself has not made any statement of this kind. The only statement was made by one of our colleagues, who said [after meeting with the President] that Saakashvili intends to propose some kind of initiative; but no official statement has been made about it so far,? MP Koka Guntsadze said.

The three opposition lawmakers said that they plan to present their proposal for consideration to an inter-faction parliamentary group that will be set up to develop a draft law to provide additional guarantees for property rights’ protection.

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