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Parliament’s Interim Fact-Finding Commission Reviews Corruption and Property Rights Violations by Political Officials (2003–2012)

Supervision - News 15 Apr 2025
Parliament’s Interim Fact-Finding Commission Reviews Corruption and Property Rights Violations by Political Officials (2003–2012)

At its latest session, the Parliamentary Interim Fact-Finding Commission — tasked with reviewing the activities of political officials and parties affiliated with the ruling regime of 2003–2012 — examined allegations of corrupt agreements and violations of property rights involving public officials during that period.

The Commission heard testimony from Jondo Baghaturia, who claimed that former President Mikheil Saakashvili amassed billions in personal wealth during his presidency through what he described as systemic state-led banditry — misappropriation of state assets and expropriation from ordinary citizens.

“The evidence I submitted does not simply highlight one specific crime or the corruption of a single president and his family — shameful as that may be — but rather exposes the final stage of decay in every branch of government. It reflects a systemic crime involving all institutions associated with the state. The judiciary, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Public Registry, as well as the president’s family members and the media were all complicit", - Baghaturia told the Commission.

He presented documents which, according to him, clearly demonstrate Saakashvili’s unexplained wealth, noting that a significant portion of his family’s property acquisitions were registered during the period leading up to the 2008 August War.

Baghaturia also alleged that Saakashvili’s mother, Giuli Alasania, orchestrated monopolies within the education sector — shutting down public schools and stripping higher education institutions of their property.

The Commission also questioned Jumber Buzaladze, who testified that in 2005, he was falsely accused of ties to the Japanese mafia and the trafficking of stolen vehicles into Georgia. As a result, two of his cars were seized from a car lot and he was imprisoned for one year.

Buzaladze claimed that the seizure involved then-Minister of Internal Affairs Vano Merabishvili and the Head of the Special Operations Department, Irakli Kodua. He said the incident cost him not only his property but also had a lasting impact on his health.

At the conclusion of the session, Commission Chair Tea Tsulukiani stated that the Commission’s final report would constitute yet another verdict against Mikheil Saakashvili.

"The Commission’s report will represent yet another verdict for Mikheil Saakashvili, for he cannot enter history as a nation-builder or the founder of the modern Georgian state", - Commission Chair stated and added that "based on this report, a single document will consolidate nearly all the tragedies that, under his command, were inflicted upon our country and upon almost every Georgian household. He will be remembered in history as the one who lost territories, as the Commander-in-Chief who deliberately abandoned and condemned civilians to remain in war zones during the August War.

He will be recorded as the leader who betrayed and sidelined his own soldiers and army, while he personally waged a political war alongside Merabishvili, Shalva Janashvili, Gigi Ugulava, Lomaia, and other politicians — a war that cost the lives of many soldiers, the loss of 111 additional villages in the Tskhinvali region, and further entrenched the state of occupation in our country.

Russia, as an occupying power, solidified its presence in Georgia with Saakashvili’s assistance. He lost the Dali Valley — a vast territory that had remained under the control of Georgia's central government thanks to the support of its local residents.

He will enter history not as a reformer, but as a torturer, a murderer, an extortionist of property, and an oppressor of businesses — a man who not only failed to build the state he was entrusted to lead, but who also dismantled what he inherited. Instead, he constructed a mafia-style regime tailored to himself, his family, and his entourage, and established a system of state terror."