The Georgian authorities do not rule out “serious provocations” from the opposition before the parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said at the election headquarters of the ruling Georgian Dream party, NewsGeorgia reports.
The topic of the briefing was a statement from the prosecutor's office about the possible involvement of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili in the assassination attempt on opposition leader Givi Targamadze in 2016. The deputy's car was blown up in the center of Tbilisi three days before the parliamentary elections. Eight years later, the police announced the arrest of convicted performer David (Darcho) Khechuashvili in absentia while attempting to illegally cross the border from Turkey.
“We do not exclude even such severe provocations as were planned in 2016... The radical opposition is in complete hysteria. They have complete data that only two parties have the prospect of (overcoming) the electoral threshold and their overall result is a little more than 20%,” Kobakhidze said.
In this regard, he called on law enforcement officers to be especially vigilant.
The Prime Minister of Georgia also spoke in favor of making the version with Saakashvili’s trace the subject of special interest in the investigation into the case of the assassination attempt on Targamadze.
“Let me remind you that the explosion of Givi Targamadze’s car, in which, fortunately, there were no casualties, was a grave fact three days before the parliamentary elections, which was very likely done with the aim of influencing the elections. “Identifying the trace of Mikheil Saakashvili and Gia Lortkipanidze in this crime makes one think and should become a subject of special interest for the investigation,” he added.
