On December 21 during the special session of the Georgian parliament, the parliamentary opposition led by the faction Democratic Front proposed creating a special investigative commission to look into recent incidents involving the handing over of property to the state voluntarily. The National Movement party announced that they are against such a commission. The opposition parties stated that they know dozens of cases when property owners in Tbilisi were forced to hand over their properties to the government after demands from the General Prosecutor's Office. "Legitimate doubts arise about government pressure when many restaurant owners located in the Rike area [left bank of the Mtkvari River] in downtown Tbilisi, hand their property over to the state for free, " Davit Berdzenishvili opposition MP from the Republican Party said. Another case, which captured the attention of opposition and media recently, involved Jacob Shamatava who said on December 19 that prosecutors were pressuring him to give the government his 3000 sq m of land in Tbilisi near the US Embassy otherwise they threatened to arrest him. Shamatava made this statement in a press conference with opposition politician Kakha Kukava from the Democratic Front party. The next day he was arrested and accused of making fake documents stating he had ownership rights over the disputed plot of land. But Shamatava maintained that he rightfully owned the plot of land, which was previously given to him from his grandfather. "This is not the only case of property being expropriated by the authorities. Shamatava was arrested just because he publicly spoke against the pressure applied to him by the General Prosecutor's office, " Kukava said at the parliamentary session on December 21. "When the state tries to take its citizen's property illegally, it means that Saakashvili's group is supporting racketeering," said Kukava. "Kukava is trying to make a name for himself in Georgian history with these kinds of acc ... Читать далее