Senior MP on French Decision to Grant Okruashvili Asylum

Senior lawmaker from the ruling party, Givi Targamadze, said that France’s failure “to fully understand the Georgian reality” was reason behind its decision to grant political asylum to ex-Defense Minister, Irakli Okruashvili. 

France granted asylum to Okruashvili in April, whose extradition was sought by the Georgian authorities.

“We do not think that evidence [presented by the Georgian authorities] were weak. The decision there [in France] was taken in fact even without consideration of these evidence; hence we can not even say whether the evidence were firm or weak,” MP Targamadze, the chairman of the defense and security committee in the outgoing parliament said.

He was speaking in the Rustavi 2 TV’s political talk-show, Triangle, late on May 7.

When asked why France granted Okruashvili political asylum, Targamadze responded: “Unfortunately, as it seems there still are countries in Europe, which do not exactly and fully understand the situation [in Georgia] and the Georgian reality. And I think here we should also recall that this is the same country [France], which was one of those countries which said no to granting MAP to Georgia [NATO Membership Action Plan]. In that case the same argument can be brought up why it [France] said no to giving MAP to Georgia; it [France] has not fully understood our arguments in favor of giving MAP.”

When again asked by anchor what was the reason behind France decision to grant Okruashvili political asylum MP Targamadze said he did not know motives. “This [the France decision] is not a problem, but this is regretful that our arguments were not accepted…. Okruashvili has never been a political prisoner.”

Tbilisi City Court found Okruashvili guilty of “large-scale extortion” and sentenced him to 11 years in prison in absentia on March 28.