Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has responded to the case of Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli. Kvirikashvili made a statement at the government session. The Prime Minister calls the accusations absurd and evaluates them as attempts to discredit state institutions.

The Prime Minister said at the government session today that he understood the concers of the NGO sector, the citizens and human rights defenders very well, although making the preliminary conclusions are unacceptable.

"It is unacceptable to discredit state institutions. Investigation is ongoing. The Minister of Internal Affairs has made a statement that we have a relationship with Azeri colleagues and my call will be to refrain from preliminary conclusions before the investigation is over.

"If we reduce confidence in state institutions, it will be very difficult for us to protect the security of our country, trust between our citizens and the state on which the construction of a truly democratic country is based, so I call on everyone once again to avoid discrediting state institutions by preliminary conclusions.

Of course, I call on the law enforcers to do everything in the shortest possible time to investigate this issue and there is no doubt that that human rights are protected in our country. This is categorically inadmissible and of course I exclude that the state structures were involved in this incident. The investigation is under way and we will wait for the findings of the investigation, "- Giorgi Kvirikashvili said.