Our expectation was that the President would appear at the session of the Constitutional Court - of course, she may be represented by representatives, but I think that this will prevent us from proper consideration of the case and proper decision-making. Such a statement made today the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Georgia.

“As we heard on TV, she expressed confidence in her two representatives, of course, the President may be represented at the session of the Constitutional Court by her representatives, but I think that this will prevent us from proper consideration of the case and proper decision-making.

We thought that by appearing in the Constitutional Court, Salome Zourabichvili would talk to us about the circumstances around her visits. Good lawyers, who will appear at the session of the Constitutional Court, of course, they will talk about legal issues, but based on the law, we shall consider not only legal issues, but also factual circumstances.

In particular, the visits of the President, her activities, the implementation of the representative authority in foreign relations, the content of the visits that took place in several countries are the circumstances on which only the President has complete information.

Therefore, it is possible that at today’s meeting, the representatives will not be able to fully represent the President and say, “I don’t know, I can’t tell you, etc”. In such a case, the court has the right to issue a ruling on her [President’s] presence at tomorrow’s session.

Salome Zourabichvili may say that she is not attending the hearing, but if the court orders the President to appear in the court, in this case, she must obey the court’s decision, she must come to the court, this is what is called against her will, but not the implementation of coercive mechanisms.

Accordingly, I don’t know and I do not make the decision alone, this is a collegial body, consisting of 9 judges. It is clear that lawyers are qualified, it is clear that they will have answers to questions about legal issues, but as for the actual circumstances, specifically the content of the visits and the issues discussed there and other circumstances that only President is aware of, I think that they probably will not be able to give a complete answer to these questions”, - said Merab Turava.