AJARIA HEAD URGES COMPROMISE WITH TBILISI
Both parties “have to meet each other to take the population of Georgia out of the complicated situation”, Abashidze said on Ajaria TV late Thursday.
“The center and the region have to find a compromise and by eliminating mutual dislike, to serve for the benefit of the people”, he added. “The center has made numerous aggressive statements regarding Ajaria, but such statements are unpardonable in the existing situation”, he added.
Abashidze seems to have accepted Georgian demands to share the incomes of the autonomy with the rest of the country provided peace is preserved in Ajaria. “Today it is important to increase the economic component of Georgia. Despite the complicated situation Ajaria continues to receive foreign investments. To preserve the situation it is necessary to keep peace in the region”, he said.
Abashidze said he would free former Batumi Mayor Tengiz Asanidze from custody Friday and ensure his safe travel to Tbilisi, although he disagreed with the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights.
“The European court defended the rights of one man, but it did not pay attention to the people who suffered from Tengiz Asanidze”, he said.
“The case should not be dramatized. In jail Asanidze had good conditions, and if one speaks about his release, it should be taken into account that law should be equal for all in Georgia”, Abashidze said.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled to free Asanidze on Thursday and committed the Georgian authorities to pay 155,000 euros to him “as compensation for moral damage.” The Justice Ministry and the State Security Ministry of Georgia sent the judgment to Ajaria for “immediate execution.”
Asanidze was arrested in late 1993 and was sentenced for economic crimes in 1995. Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze pardoned him in October 1999, but the Ajar Supreme Court annulled the decision motivating it “by grave offences he committed.”
The Ajar prosecutor’s office accused Asanidze “of complicity in kidnapping and killing a policeman in Ajaria” four years ago. The Georgian Supreme Court acquitted Asanidze in 2001, but he was not set free in Batumi. In this connection Asanidze addressed the European Court of Human Rights.
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