The Daily Beat: 17 October
The parliament is set to vote on the President’s impeachment on 18 October. According to Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, the notice of impeachment vote has already been communicated to the President’s Office, which confirmed her attendance.
A day before her impeachment hearing at the parliament, President Salome Zurabishvili revoked the Georgian citizenship of US-sanctioned Otar Partskhaladze and vetoed the so-called “tent law.” Otar Partskhaladze, a former Prosecutor General and crony of Bidzina Ivanishvili who was sanctioned on September 14 by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for channeling malign Russian influence in Georgia, held dual Georgian and Russian citizenship.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili once again reacted to the President’s impeachment, saying, “Gone are the days when the President thought she was above the law and the constitution.” PM Garibashvili also admitted that the Georgian Dream does not expect and has never expected to gather enough votes for impeachment.
French newspaper Le Monde found a link between the brutal killing of a teacher in Arras (France) and Georgia. According to Le Monde, the father of Mohammed Mogouchkov, who killed a French teacher, lives in Georgia, “where he has not yet been questioned.” He was reportedly strongly imbued with jihadist ideology and influenced by his father, who was expelled from France in 2018 and now lives in Georgia, writes Le Monde.
The newly appointed US Ambassador Robin Dunnigan met with Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili. During the meetings, Ambassador Dunnigan expressed her desire to strengthen the US-Georgia strategic partnership, expand people-to-people ties and economic interaction, and support Georgia’s further integration with the EU and NATO. The Georgian officials congratulated Ambassador Dunnigan upon her new diplomatic posting, expressing readiness to deepen the strategic partnership.
Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that Crimea plans to link Russian cities with Sokuhumi by sea, using “Kometas.” According to TASS, “Vice-President” of the Crimean Development Fund, Vasily Dyachenko, voiced intentions of reviving the old Soviet-era sea route of the “Kometa” ships, connecting the cities Gelendzhik – Novorossiysk – Sochi – Sokhumi. At the Tourism Forum in Sokhumi, Dyachenko also emphasized Abkhazia’s “significant potential” and logistical advantages.
Parliament elected two non-judge members of the High Council of Justice (HCoJ)- Levan Nemsadze and Goga Kikilashvili. One of the elected non-judge members of the HCoJ, Goga Kikilashvili, is the son of Constitutional Court judge Khvicha Kikilashvili, one of the six judges who supported the Court’s ruling that Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili’s visits to European capitals were unconstitutional. Now that all five vacancies of the HCoJ have been filled, the quota of non-judicial members has been met.
Transparency International – Georgia (TI-Georgia), a local watchdog, released an assessment, saying the Parliament is becoming a closed institution. The watchdog believes the legislature uses security as a pretext to limit public participation, tightening the access to the parliament for the general public and media.
