Khoshtaria and Japaridze boycott meeting with CoE head

Elene Khoshtaria, one of the leaders of the opposition Coalition for Change group, announced earlier that she will not attend a meeting with the Council of Europe (CoE) delegation visiting Georgia.

Alain Berset, the president of the CoE, has met with several senior figures in the ruling Georgian Dream party.

In a post on Facebook, Koshtaria noted that ‘the Council of Europe is not a country, it is an organisation and has no connection to any recognition. We are members of it. [Georgian] Dream uses it in propaganda and it is a pity that they allowed it’.

‘Their main mandate is human rights. Not visiting political prisoners, not entering prisons at this moment, I consider it their second big mistake’, she said, noting that it would be wrong to meet with the delegation while ignoring the plight of those imprisoned.

Another of the Coalition for Change’s leaders, Zura Japaridze posted on Facebook earlier today that he also would not attend the meeting.

He said representatives of international organisations coming to Georgia should fulfill three conditions.

‘They should see the people injured [by police] and hear their stories […] They should enter the prison, see the political prisoners and hear their stories […] They should walk along Rustaveli Avenue at least once in the evening and talk to the people standing there in the cold’, he posted.

‘I know I’m not alone in this decision. I also know that other politicians are going to meet and say all this into face. That's also the way, but I choose this way’.