This Affects You responds to the statements of Mechiauri and Lortkipanidze

This Affects You campaign responds to the public statements made by the members of the Georgian Dream coalition and Members of the Parliament of Georgia Tamaz Mechiauri and Davit Lortkipanidze. Tamaz Mechiauri, when commenting on publication of secret video recordings, said that ‘officials, who are in secret video recordings, should resign”, while Davit Lortkipanidze used an unethical phrase directed at an anchorwoman on live TV.

This Affects You expresses concern regarding the public statements made by these individuals. These statements are legitimization of crimes committed in previous several days. The MPs are accomplices to the actions, goal of which is to blackmail specific individuals and the society. These individuals raise a suspicion that they do not have a state vision in regards to these types of crimes. Their statements undermine the statements of the head of the government, Prosecutor’s Office and other officials regarding a need for an effective investigation of these crimes. We also believe that, the statements of the MPs are a justification and an encouragement of already committed and announced crimes.

We would like to state once again that these actions raise a question regarding the position of the Georgian Dream Coalition on secret recordings and political will to investigate these crimes in a timely and effective manner.

Therefore, we call upon the Parliament of Georgia to adequately react to these statements. The MPs should publicly apologize to the society. Political parties should ensure that individuals with such attitudes do not send wrong messages to the society.