The Speaker of the Parliament said the new investigation by the BBC had raised suspicions that David Kezerashvili, the former Defence Minister of Georgia, was a participant in the fraudulent scheme “robbing European pensioners”.

Shalva Papuashvili’s comment followed the BBC’s investigation into a fraudulent “call centre” scheme involving Kezerashvili.

“The money Kezerashvili is spending in support of the Georgian opposition, non-governmental sector and media is the money stolen from the Georgian army and fraudulently obtained from European pensioners.

Unfortunately, Kezerashvili is sheltered by Europe. We see that he is planning chaos in the country from there. We see that he himself admits that he funds political parties, the media, the non-governmental sector.

The person who first stole GEL 5 million from the Georgian army, then robbed European pensioners in a fraudulent scheme is directly involved in Georgian politics, the media the non-governmental sector with finances.

I hope, European countries would take this matter seriously and Kezerashvili would be handed over to Georgia to face justice”, - said Shalva Papuashvili.