Opposition member fined for failing to submit declaration

Petre Tsiskarishvili, General Secretary of the United National Movement opposition party, has been fined for failing to submit a mandatory declaration. The politician received official notification of a 1,000 GEL fine, despite claiming that he no longer considers himself a member of parliament.

“Today, I received a letter by post informing me of a 1,000 GEL fine. We had already provided an explanation for why we did not fill out the declaration. In our statement, we clarified that we had submitted a request for the termination of our parliamentary mandate, which had not yet been approved at the time. We do not consider ourselves MPs and practically do not exercise parliamentary powers, meaning we should not be required to submit the declaration. Despite this, the fine has been imposed,” he said.

Tsiskarishvili announced that he plans to challenge the fine in court, expressing hope that the judiciary will uphold fairness.

“We will appeal this in court, and if there is any sense of reason within the judicial system, they should acknowledge that we are no longer MPs yet are still being required to submit this declaration. If not, they will continue to fine us. If the court has not received specific directives on this matter, I hope common sense will prevail,” he stated.