Georgian government creates prosecutor's office within prosecutor's office

The prime minister of Georgia and other leaders of the country are rare guests at the Prosecutor General's office, so as not to become accused of putting pressure on the main investigative body. However, this time Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani made an exception, taking part in the presentation of a new department on the investigation of crimes and other offenses committed during the investigative process. Based on the statements of the prime minister, the new department will focus on "violations and crimes" committed during the investigative process by prosecutors.

The head of the government outlined the chronological framework from 2004 to 2012 - the rule of Mikheil Saakashvili and his team. One of the most prominent members of this team, the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General Zurab Adeishvili, who is known as the "eminence grise of the regime", fled Georgia on October 2nd 2012 following the parliamentary elections, when it became obvious that Saakashvili's party, the United National Movement, was going to lose to the Georgian Dream of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili and that a change of power was going to be apparent. And it was also clear that the new authorities were going to investigate the crimes committed by the former regime. Therefore Adeishvili found refuge in Hungary, where he was granted temporary asylum; a few weeks ago, he moved to Ukraine. He is currently working at Saakashvili's International Advisory Council of Reforms under President Poroshenko.
 The prosecution has already opened several criminal cases against Saakashvili and Adeishvili on charges of abuse of power. Judging from the creation of a new department in the prosecutor's office and the statements of the top leaders of the country (including the prime minister and the head of the Ministry of Justice), this is just the beginning. The newly created department will investigate crimes and instances of abuse of power by the prosecutors of the old regime as "instructed by the high authorities of the country."

The majority of these prosecutors are either still working in the prosecutor's office or joined other law enforcement agencies in the process of "employee rotation." It would be unwise to open criminal cases against several hundred investigators at once. Therefore, Irakli Garibashvili said that prosecutors and investigators at the early and middle stages of their careers will be exempt from liability. Prosecutors at higher positions will be investigated by the new department. 
Thousands of statements made by businessmen who complained about the authorities and the "Stalinist-Berian methods" of investigators in the first nine years of the "team of the young reformers" will be regarded as evidence. The lion's share of these complaints focus on property redistribution and privatization.

Indeed, a significant percentage of state property privatized in early 1990s became state-owned and was sold for a second time during the presidency of Saakashvili. In the majority of cases, the alienation of the property took place based on a so-called "procedural agreement with prosecutors", when, for example, tax evasion cases were opened against businessmen who were happy to buy their way out of jail by concluding such an agreement with the investigation.

But immediately after the change of government, the injured businessmen parties rushed to tell the new prosecutors that criminal cases had been fabricated against them and that investigators had deliberately alienated property from them in favor of their friends, who later privatized it. And even if such suspicions cannot be proved by evidence, the fact that everyone at the Prosecutor General's office were friends during the presidency of Saakashvili gives foundation to such accusations.

The institute of procedural agreement which was appropriated from  the legal system of the United States played a cruel joke with the "young reformers" and Mikheil Saakashvili himself. Many people warned Mikheil that blind imitation and copying could lead to disastrous consequences if local realities and the local legal culture as well as the quality of the forensic investigation of the whole system are not taken into consideration. And these consequences had an impact not only on the country and the society, but also on Mikheil personally. After all, the new head of the department, prosecutor Irakli Nadareishvili, has already opened four criminal cases against ex-President Saakashvili.

Apparently, soon new cases will be open against the former Georgian president, since all the prosecutors in the early and middle stages of their careers will hint at orders from their managers. The serious intentions of the government are reflected in tens of millions of laris already allocated from the budget for compensation to be paid to the injured businessmen. The latter are not able to get their property back, since it was legally bought by the new owners, but they can count on the cash equivalent of their property and "non-pecuniary damages." And Mikhail Saakashvili and his Attorney General will once again be made responsible for everything.