[Kelly Degnan's] statement showed us one thing - Ambassador Degnan was the initiator of this visa restriction, sanction, as she herself said about it, Georgian Dream MP Irakli Kadagishvili said.

According to him, the Ambassador's initiatives served to incite political interference in the judicial system rather than the reform the judicial system.

"She [Kelly Degnan] once again stated that she was guided only by public sources, that is, certain information published in the media, but she said nothing about the credibility of the information, specific facts. As you know, the Georgian media is characterized by pluralism and varied materials, so if we deliver a verdict against a person based on the media reports or a statement of an expert, believe me that there will be left no person in Georgia to evade sanctions.

I still believe that Ms. Ambassador’s initiative actually served to incite political interference in the judicial system rather than to help further development and reform of the judicial system. This step further increased political radicalism and polarization in the process of implementing the 12 recommendations. Therefore, I think that the initiative of Ms. Ambassador, which was later realized this way, was counterproductive for the purposes that Georgia, together with its partner states, is trying to achieve and get candidate status," Kadagishvili said.

According to him, the opposition depends on external factors, because it does not have internal resources.

"I will tell you one story regarding the sanctions. Unfortunately, our radical opposition, as it does not have any internal resources, including electoral resources, entirely depends on external factors. They think sanctions are the only thing they can use to create a chaos in Georgia and thus allow the National Movement to come back to power," Kadagishvili said.

source: IPN