Founders of TBC Bank Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze release statement:

“It has come to our knowledge that the Prosecutor General’s Office invited representatives of the Diplomatic Corps accredited in Georgia to a closed meeting to be held on September 6 at the Prosecutor General’s Office. Presentation of opinions or conclusions of two foreign experts hired by the Prosecutor General’s Office concerning Khazaradze-Japaridze case is planned during the meeting.

We would like to remind the Prosecutor General’s Office that in accordance with the Constitution of Georgia, as well as the rules established in any law-governed state, the only legitimate space where the Prosecution – the Prosecutor’s Office should present evidence and prove the guilt by the standard beyond reasonable doubt is in a trial alone.

The mentioned closed meeting is a gross violation of the principles established by the Constitution of Georgia and the civilized world. The reasons behind the provision of information behind closed doors by a single party concerning a particular criminal case (with regard to which the court proceedings have not commenced yet) are unclear to us, except for trying us and declaring us guilty before the trial takes place.

By such meeting, the Prosecutor’s Office is openly attempting to shift to the Diplomatic Corps the burden of the decision concerning the mentioned politicized case with no legal grounds. This attempt indicates that the Prosecutor’s Office has moved beyond its legal frames and has serious crisis of legitimacy with regard to this particular case.

Furthermore, we would like to emphasize the fact that representatives of the governing party are actively making public statements concerning this case and are discussing the ongoing criminal case with the media in detail. By misrepresentation and false representation of the factual circumstances of the case prior to the start of the court proceedings, the mentioned representatives of the governing party are trying to form a public opinion regarding the case before the decision of the court of law has been made.

We request conducting the trial transparently, in compliance with all the standards guaranteed by the Constitution of Georgia and the International Human Rights Law. If the Government wants to involve international experts in the mentioned case, we believe that such experts should not be lawyers hired by the Prosecutor’s Office regardless of their qualification, but, rather, independent lawyers with international authority, who will receive all the information concerning the case and will have an opportunity to form an independent opinion on the ongoing case”,-reads the statement.