Georgian Parliament Speaker accuses opposition leader Khazaradze of fraud, slams German diplomatic ties

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday attacked opposition leader and businessman Mamuka Khazaradze, accusing him of long-term fraudulent activity and questioning the legitimacy of a 2022 agreement between Khazaradze and the German ambassador to Georgia.

Speaking to reporters, Papuashvili alleged that Khazaradze’s business success was only possible due to preferential treatment from the authorities during earlier political periods, adding that the opposition figure “cannot even manage the legal or financial aspects of renting out his own apartment.”

“We see that he concealed taxable income,” Papuashvili said, referring to Khazaradze’s recently published property declaration, which reportedly failed to include rental income or related contractual details.

The Parliament Speaker claimed that both domestic and international evidence confirmed what he described as Khazaradze’s fraudulent conduct. “It has been established that Lelo, the party he founded, was created with the intent to commit fraud and siphon money from the state budget. His supporters and party members must now consider whether they are complicit in this deception.”

In a particularly pointed rebuke, Papuashvili criticised the German ambassador,Peter Fischer, for signing a cooperation agreement with Khazaradze in late 2022. “At the time of the agreement, Khazaradze had already been convicted of fraud and had renounced his parliamentary mandate,” he said. “The ambassador should have refrained from entering into any legal arrangement with such a figure. This is a basic international standard.”

Drawing on his own experience in German governmental programmes, Papuashvili claimed that partnerships with politically active individuals - let alone convicted ones - were strictly prohibited due to corruption risks. He went on to suggest that the German ambassador had either knowingly collaborated with an “untrustworthy individual” or acted with “such negligence that he dragged the German state into a tax evasion scandal.”

The Speaker concluded by questioning the German government’s position, asking whether Berlin intended to maintain “contractual ties with an internationally recognised fraudster and extremist politician,” and whether it would continue to “lecture the Georgian people from a moral pedestal.”