TBILISI, July 17. /TASS/. Georgia’s former foreign minister and opposition leader Grigol Vashadze was summoned for a police questioning as part of an ongoing investigation into the June 20-21 riots outside the country’s parliament, a spokesperson for the Georgian Interior Ministry has told TASS.
"Grigol Vashadze will be interviewed as an eyewitness in the presence of a magistrate judge at the Tbilisi city court on July 18. Grigol Vashadze will respond to law enforcement officers’ questions regarding the events that took place outside the parliament on June 20-21," the source said.
Initially, Vashadze was summoned to testify at a police station, but refused giving his testimony in this format. Therefore, he will be interviewed in the presence of a judge, the ministry spokesperson said.
A number of senior Georgian opposition figures have already testified in the presence of a magistrate judge, including ex-Tbilisi mayor Gigi Ugulava, former defense minister Giorgi Baramidze and his fellow party member Khatia Dekanoidze (both from the the United National Movement party), leader of the National Democratic Party Bachuki Kardava, senior member of the Victorious Georgia party Gubaz Sanikidze and senior member of the Law and Justice party Irakli Glonti.
Former defense minister and founder of the Victorious Georgia movement, Irakli Okruashvili, was also summoned for an interview, but he is now outside the country.
In late June, Nikanor Melia, a lawmaker representing the United National Movement opposition party founded by ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, was detained on charges of organizing and leading a public unrest and later released on a bail of about $10,000.
On June 20, several thousand protesters gathered near the building of the national parliament in downtown Tbilisi, demanding the resignation of the interior minister and the parliament’s speaker, and tried to storm it. In response, police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators. According to Georgian media, 305 protesters were detained, 240 people suffered injuries.
The protests were sparked by an uproar over the Russian State Duma delegation’s participation in the 26th session of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO). Opposition lawmakers were outraged by the fact that, in line with the protocol, the Russian delegation’s head and IAO president Gavrilov addressed the event’s participants from the parliament speaker’s seat. In protest, they did not allow the IAO session to continue and besieged the parliament.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has launched a criminal case into the riots on charges of organizing group violence, leading it or taking part in it, which are punishable with a prison term of between six and nine years.