On July 20, 2016, various media outlets reported that INTERPOL removed Igor Giorgadze from its wanted list. As was expected, this led to the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation; politically hostile media and their guests voiced their suppositions and stated their opinions as facts thereby producing completely absurd theories. Specifically, that allegedly Giorgadze was removed from the INTERPOL’s wanted list by the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office/ National INTERPOL Bureau in Georgia; or that allegedly this happened as a result of the supposed intervention by the current Government, so that Giorgadze could take part in the Autumn Parliamentary elections; or that allegedly the court hearings were held and scheduled in an expedited manner and so on. Time proved the absurdity and falseness of these statements; neither were the court hearings held in an expedited fashion (as, four years on, the case is still ongoing), nor did Igor Giorgadze take part in the parliamentary elections.
What really happened:
In 1995, the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office unlawfully requested INTERPOL that Igor Giorgadze be put up on their wanted list under red notice. Also, for twenty years, the Prosecutor’s Office, prevented the Defense from getting access to and fully familiarizing themselves with the case files. It was only after the criminal case had been referred to the Court in 2015, that the Defense managed to receive all the case materials from the Court (note: in 2006, following the introduction of an amendment in the legislation, the accused could be tried in absentia - Igor Giorgadze persistently submitted requests to have his case heard in court, however, he had been unlawfully denied this right). After a careful study of the case materials, it was once again established that there was no evidence substantiated by facts against Mr. Igor Giorgadze. The only evidence in the case materials was - the political prosecution of Igor Giorgadze. Respectively, the Defense decided to appeal to INTERPOL and request the removal of Mr. Giorgadze from the wanted list.
On March 9, 2016, the Defense sent the appeal to INTERPOL whereby the appeal was made on the basis of INTERPOL’s Constitution’s Article 2, which states that the members states cooperation must be conducted “within the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, and Article 3 which strictly forbids the Organization from undertaking any intervention or activities, amongst other things, of political nature. The Defense submitted the evidence to INTERPOL and proved that the case against Mr. Giorgadze was trumped up and politically motivated.
In April of 2016, based on the above, INTERPOL, first, blocked the information on Giorgadze on its own page, and after the study of the materials submitted, on June 1st the Defense received an extensive reply from INTERPOL where amongst other issues, it stated that after a careful study of all the elements in its possession, the Commission concluded that “data registered in INTERPOL’s files concerning Mr. Giorgadze were not compliant with INTERPOL’s rules”. The Commission, therefore, gave recommendations to delete this data from INTERPOL’s files. The letter also stated that all international police cooperation via INTERPOL’s channels in this case would “not be in conformity with INTERPOL’s constitution and rules”.
As for the official statement released by Georgia’s Prosecutor’s Office, purporting that INTERPOL allegedly removed Igor Giorgadze from the wanted list because of his political asylum status in another country - Mr. Giorgadze was granted political asylum in 2006, whereas the “data” referred to in the letter concerning Igor Giorgadze was registered by INTERPOL in 1995. It is thereby clear that INTERPOL made their decision on the basis of the reevaluation of the documents received in 1995. Furthermore, INTERPOL’s letter sent to the Defense clearly indicated the fact that INTERPOL’s Constitution and Rules were violated by having Igor Giorgadze on the wanted list and the letter never references his refugee status.