The Daily Beat: 12 July
President Salome Zurabishvili welcomed NATO’s decisions on Ukraine, saying it would strengthen Ukraine’s security and resolve. “A strong alliance is the only path for Georgia as for Ukraine to enduring peace and freedom,” tweeted the president, adding that no Russian veto is to be allowed on the Euro-Atlantic choice of both countries.
Former US Ambassadors to Georgia issued a statement urging the Georgian government to allow “imprisoned and emaciated former President Mikheil Saakashvili to obtain life-saving medical treatment.” In a statement dated 10 July, the Ambassadors William Harrison Courtney (1995-1997), Kenneth Spencer Yalowitz (1998-2001), Richard Monroe Miles (2002-2005), John F. Tefft (2005-2009), and Ian C. Kelly (2015-2018), joined the international concerns following Saakashvili’s frail and decimated appearance during a remote court hearing.
The EU-supported medical mission, consisting of Polish doctors, was granted access to visit and examine ex-President Saakashvili’s health condition. Polish doctors are already in the “Vivamedi” clinic, visiting ex-President Saakashvili to conduct his medical examination. The Polish doctors are to determine whether Saakashvili receives adequate treatment at the clinic.
At a protest rally near the Culture Ministry, Georgian filmmakers published a manifesto, decrying the ministry’s destructive actions allegedly endangering professional freedom and promoting censorship. In a manifesto, filmmakers pledged “to laugh at the unqualified censors and their intention to tame Georgian cinema.” Filmmakers have been protesting targeted layoffs and reorganizations at the National Film Center for weeks, alleging that Culture Minister Tea Tsulukiani is trying to censor cinema and replace qualified staff with loyal ones. As the protest unfolded during the day, two more people were fired from the National Film Center.
An acting employee of the Interior Ministry’s Human Rights Department, Goga Razmadze, published a Facebook post exposing the problems in the police system, also accusing the deputy minister overseeing the human rights department of humiliating treatment and bullying, claiming that he might be dismissed under the pretext of reorganization. Deputy Minister at the Interior Ministry Alexander Darakhvelidze rejected the allegations, calling them “false and lie.”
