The first organizational session of the Interim Fact-Finding Commission of the Parliament of Georgia on the Activities of the 2003-2012 Regime and Its Political Officials, established on the initiative of the parliamentary faction Georgian Dream, was held in Parliament.

The session elected the Vice Speaker of Parliament and member of the faction Georgian Dream, Tea Tsulukiani, as the chairperson of the commission and the Vice Speaker of Parliament and member of the political group People’s Power, Sozar Subari, as the commission’s secretary.

According to Tea Tsulukiani, the primary outcome of the commission’s work will be a document - an historically significant conclusion - based solely on facts: “We must create a fact-based document that will remain for history. Anyone who reads this document years later will know who governed the country and how they did so between 2003 and 2012. This is the key! We will do everything at our disposal to ensure that conclusion we present at the parliamentary plenary session is dignified, truly historically significant. This is a great responsibility”.

On the same day, commission members drafted the commission’s statute, which will be submitted to the Bureau of Parliament for approval.

Tea Tsulukiani emphasized that in assessing the regime, the commission will rely on verdicts from Georgian courts, decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), international reports, and other official documents.

“Numerous important cases have already resulted in verdicts from Georgian courts. We will be guided by the principle of Res judicata. Our commission is not a body that can review or overturn final verdicts. We will request those verdicts and rely on them in our assessment of the regime. Additionally, we will reference decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, which has issued many rulings that characterize and qualify past actions, often with sanctions imposed either in Strasbourg or Georgia. These rulings will serve as our second source of information. Our third source will be newly obtained information”, - noted Tea Tsulukiani.

She further explained that the commission’s investigation will cover all areas, including the penitentiary system, the judiciary, confiscated property, public officials, and elections: “In relation to the war, we will review the actions of political officials. We will assess whether it was possible, for example, to have been better prepared for the case against Russia in the International Criminal Court in The Hague and whether a more favorable outcome could have been achieved during the initial proceedings”.

Speaking to journalists after the session, Tea Tsulukiani stressed that individuals summoned by the commission are legally obligated to cooperate with the investigation: “The question of whether the United National Movement will cooperate with the temporary investigative commission is irrelevant because the law obligates them to do so. If any of them refuse to appear after being summoned, our legislation imposes quite strict liabilities in such cases”.