Ministry of Justice studying citizenship of US sanctioned ex-Prosecutor General of Georgia

The Ministry of Justice of Georgia is studying the citizenship issue of Otar Partskhaladze, a former Prosecutor General under the Georgian Dream Government, who was last week sanctioned by the United States for promoting Russian interests in Georgia. 

 

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream, confirmed the Ministry’s engagement in the process, as the US State Department alleged Partskhaladze could have Russian citizenship. The Georgian legislation bans dual citizenship except for an exceptional rule.

 

Partskhaladze served as the country’s Prosecutor General for only 47 days in 2013, and had to resign following the claims by the domestic opposition that he had been tried in Germany for theft of footwear in the early 2000s.

 

Partskhaladze confirmed he was convicted, but claimed it was for disobedience to the law enforcement. 

 

In one of his interviews in previous years, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party who is labeled as a “shadow  ruler” by the domestic opposition, said his son, Bera Ivanishvili, was the godfather of Partskhaladze’s grandson.

 

In his post on Tuesday Mikheil Saakashvili, the currently imprisoned former President of Georgia, claimed Partskhaladze initiated legal proceedings against him “on the instructions of Russia”, saying unlike the current authorities, he had rejected the Kremlin’s demands to appoint Russian spies on senior law enforcement positions. 

 

The Georgian Prosecutor General’s office dismissed the allegations as “fake and discrediting” the same day, and said charges against Saakashvili were filed in 2014 and that a council of international experts from the US, Great Britain and Israel had been involved in evaluating the evidence against the third President. 

 

The Georgian State Security Service last week said it was looking into the sanctioning of Partskhaladze, which means the agency will allegedly request evidence backing the US allegations, following the claims by the ruling party officials that Partskhaladze had “no connection” with state structures over the past 10 years. 

 

The members of the domestic opposition said the GD officials were “refraining from” standing against Partskhaladze, as allegedly the latter “knew much” about the activities of the current Government.