Justice

Lasha Tordia thinks the assault on him by Otar Partskhaladze was related to the activities of the State Audit Office

The head of the State Audit Office of Georgia, Lasha Tordia accuses former chief prosecutor Otar Partskhaladze of assaulting him.

To this incident the political talk-show Other Accents anchored by Eka Kvesitadze was dedicated on the 13th of May.

As the anchor stated at the beginning of the show, it was confirmed with official documents that Otar Partskhaladze owns 100% of the BSRSDG Development LTD, to which the Tbilisi City Hall transferred two land plots measuring 5 515 and 2 301 square meters on Nutsubidze Street, Tbilisi, in exchange for the land area owned by him in the Mziuri Park and the transaction was performed on the 15th of April, 2016. The market cost of the two land plots amounts to 365 000 GEL. Furthermore, Otar Partskhaladze purchased by auction announced by Tbilisi City Hall 3 500 square meters of land plot adjacent to two other plots for about one million lari. No leasing or mortgage has been applied for the purchase of this land plot. It is yet unclear where he got the funds for paying such sum for a land plot in Tbilisi.

Lasha Tordia had live interview in the show by Skype, where he answered the questions about possible connections between the land plots transferred to Partskhaladze by Tbilisi City Hall, the purchase of a plot by auction and the incident that occurred on the 12th of May.

The Head of the State Audit Office spoke about the assault on him at the El Centro night club, of which he accused the former chief prosecutor, Otar Partskhaladze and the persons, who accompanied him that night. He says the incident was related to his work, because the State Audit Office was investigating the lawfulness of the transfer of the land plots to Partskhaladze’s company by Tbilisi City Hall and the purchase of the other plot by auction, by granting special privileges to this company.

Lasha Tordia reviewed the relations between the Tbilisi City Hall and the company run by Partskhaladze saying it was a fact of nepotism, which raised many questions.

“This report will be public. No significant changes are feasible in this report. The firm, which is owned by Partskhaladze, is granted, to say simply, good conditions, which the other companies are not usually given,” – Lasha Todria said.

The member of the National Movement, Nika Melia, member of the European Georgia, Gigvi Targamadze, the member of the Free Democrats Party, Levan Samushia and the CEO of the Transparency International – Georgia, Eka Gigauri also joined the show to assess the assault on Lasha Tordia.

“Without any modesty, this man can be called a classic mafia boss,” – Nika Melia stated –“The person, who can control the office of the prosecutor, interior ministry and etc., and on the other hand, he is forming gangs of criminals in the streets of Tbilisi and elsewhere. For the informal ruler, Bidzina Ivanishvili, there is no obstruction for his Partskhaladzes and Kaladzes, who have actually transformed into classical mafia bosses. Any person, colleague of former colleague or just a friend, who opposes to their interests, including political or business interests, will be dealt with this way”, - Nika Melia said.

As Givi Targamadze said in his interview, he had been reported that the financial police had removed and destroyed the video footage from the club’s security video control.

The member of the European Georgia thinks that Partskhaladze is maintaining his privileges due to Ivanishvili’s sympathies to him.

“Partskhaladze is involved in huge corruption schemes – this is the issue of ports, where the work of the Poti Port was intentionally oppressed by Partskhaladze; then was Batumi Port, which was made bankrupt by serious pressure on its Kazakh director, who was also involved in corruption. Then the parallel entity was established, so-called small port, which is currently governed by the son of Lukoil Company’s director, Katamadze, who was also brought by Partskhaladze; as for the big port, with the purpose of making it bankrupt, a protégé of Vano Chkhartishvili was brought as a chief. Partskhaladze was irked by a new war launched in relation to the Ferro Plant. Mr. Kapanadze succeeded to appoint a temporary manager in the company with the help of Partskhalaze, with the argument of ecological protection and in fact, regained the plant in his possession this way,” – Targamadze said.

The executive secretary of the Free Democrats Party, Levan Samushia asserts that the informal governance is obvious, while Partskhaladze is controlling the prosecutor’s office.

“The compilation of facts shows that the government of Georgian Dream, which is entirely engaged in informal governance, is keen to informal governance and I don’t think that they will actually investigate this case,” – Levan Samushia said.

In her turn, Eka Gigauri, who is the CEO of the Transparency International – Georgia, said that now the conduct of unbiased investigation was crucial.

“We are demanding an unbiased investigation. This is crucial, especially because the case is related to the head of an independent institution, who was actually assaulted for his work,” – Eka Gigauri said.