English“Bidzina’s Law,” the latest White Paper by Robert Amsterdam, details the sham prosecution against his client George Bachiashvili and the state capture of the country’s institutions by the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili.
LONDON, May 9, 2024 – Democracy in Georgia is at a “critical juncture”, according to a major new report, which was launched at a public event in London today.
The report, «Bidzina’s Law: The State Capture of Georgia,» written by international lawyer Robert Amsterdam, warns against the malign influence of former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili and his continuing consolidation of power.
Amsterdam highlights how Ivanishvili’s weaponization of the Georgian judicial system to target his political and personal opponents is depriving his victims of their human rights, their right to a fair trial and right to defence, and the presumption of innocence which must exist in any country calling itself a democracy.
The report uses the “critically important” story of Ivanishvili’s unprecedented and baseless attacks on his former employee, George Bachiashvili, to expose how Bidzina Ivanishvili has taken control of the Georgian government through a combination of bribery, blackmail and corruption.
It demonstrates the framework for how Ivanishvili is dragging Georgia away from the path of Euro-Atlantic integration and toward a much darker future that will more closely resemble the authoritarian vagaries of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, where the State apparatus is routinely used to settle personal scores and silence political opposition.
The report suggests that Georgia’s hopes of joining the European Union and its status as a candidate nation are jeopardised by the conduct of Ivanishvili’s government.
It interrogates the blatant abuses of law in numerous other cases of Ivanishvili’s targeting of political opponents, details the roles of his many servants (some of whom are already sanctioned in the United States and European Union for their misconduct) and the negative impact on human rights in Georgia.
However, Amsterdam is clear that the judicial assault on Bachiashvili is also an opportunity. This is the first time that Ivanishvili is directly involved in false criminal charges and the usurpation of the judicial process. He will need to appear in court and explain himself and be cross-examined under oath – a position he has assiduously avoided in the past.
The report calls on Georgia’s allies to demand that the Georgian Dream government demonstrate the successful implementation of numerous, long-promised and never-delivered reforms that it has campaigned on.
Commenting, Robert Amsterdam said:
“This farce cannot continue. Through their continued inaction, all of Georgia’s Western allies are allowing Ivanishvili to buy control of Georgia and turn it into his personal fiefdom.
“The Georgian Dream party is creating a nightmare for the Georgian people as their hard-won democracy is being corrupted and overthrown by greed and the personal ambitions of the richest man in Georgia.
“It is time for the democracies of the West to take an active role in safeguarding the rights of the Georgian people and to help them prevent the unlawful creation of a new dictatorship that takes its cues from Putin’s Russia.”
