Concerns rise over US-sanctioned Georgian officer’s role in election security measures

Opposition politicians and civil society organisations have criticised Georgia’s Interior Ministry for tasking its riot police chief, Zviad (Khareba) Kharazishvili, with overseeing election safety, just two weeks after he was sanctioned by the US.

On Tuesday, Tbilisi-based rights group Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) criticised the Interior Ministry for its plan to involve Kharazishvili in public safety measures for the 26 October vote.

The office of Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri announced on 4 October that Gomelauri had ordered the formation of ‘territorial groups’ for election day. According to the Ministry, these ‘politically neutral’ task forces will be responsible for ensuring a ‘free, safe, and peaceful environment’ by ‘detecting and preventing violations’ throughout 26 October.

The announcement has been widely understood as signalling a customary planned police presence near polling stations. Georgian legislation mandates police officers with addressing the unlawful control or gathering of voters and prevent obstructions to voter movement within a 100-metre radius of polling stations on election day, as well as with ensuring the secure transportation of election documentation. They are also charged with managing potential incidents, such as altercations or disruptions.

TI Georgia noted that unlike in the previous two parliamentary elections, the upcoming groups ‘responsible for the prevention of offences and responding to them’ would include, as per Gomelauri’s order dated 30 September, representatives directly appointed by the head of the Ministry’s Special Tasks Department, Kharazishvili, rather than the heads of its territorial units.

Kharazishvili has been implicated in misconduct during anti-government demonstrations earlier this year, where he was accused of directly overseeing riot police detaining and assaulting government critics present at the rallies. 

The targeted individuals claiming abuse of power by police in response to their presence at the street demonstrations against the foreign agent law included opposition leaders Levan Khabeishvili, then the chair of the largest opposition United National Movement party, nationalist anti-Russian campaigner Davit Katsarava, and the chair of the Citizens party, Aleko Elisashvili.

These accusations ultimately led to both Kharazishvili and his deputy, Mileri Lagazauri, being sanctioned by the US Department of State last month. On 16 September, the Department also announced visa restrictions on more than 60 unnamed ‘senior government and municipal figures,’ as well as business leaders and their family members.

[Read more: US sanctions four Georgian security officials and far-right extremists for ‘serious human rights abuses’] 

A day after Gomelauri’s announcement,  UNM chair Tinatin Bokuchava alleged that Gomelauri’s announcement aimed to  greenlight Kharazishvili to ‘intimidate’ voters on election day. 

The decision was also condemned by the election observer coalition My Vote, which stated on Monday that ‘such a person should not have any, even indirect, contact with election-related processes.’

On Tuesday, TI Georgia described the Ministry’s decision to even retain Kharazishvili in his position as head of the Ministry’s Special Tasks Department  ‘alarming,’ and called on Gomelauri to revisit his ‘unacceptable’ decision to make Kharazishvili a ‘de-facto overseer’ of public safety on election day. 

The Georgian authorities have not made any legal moves against any of the individuals explicitly named in the US sanctions in mid-September. Moreover, Georgian officials have several times jumped to Kharazishvili’s defence, including Gomelauri, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili, and Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. 

Two days before the Interior Ministry announced its decision on territorial task forces for election day, Kobakhidze sharply criticised the ‘global war party’, a Georgian Dream term for a cabal of unspecified malign international forces, for unfairly targeting Kharazishvili and his deputy. He argued that the sanctions were imposed on the two officials — neither of whom have been subject to local investigations — ‘without any proof’.