The Parliament considered with the first reading the draft on change to the Law “On Occupied Territories” though the draft was not voted as it entailed the severe discussion by the opposition. According to the Chair of the session, Manana Kobakhidze, the consideration will get resumed on May 15.

The opposition expressed discontent – despite the attendance of minority members, they refused to register. Due to absence of necessary quorum, the MPs passed registration twice. According to Giorgi Gabashvili, the minority made the political decision not to register. “We will try our best to postpone consideration. The request by Russia is to weaken the law on Occupied Territories when there have been made none of the steps to de-occupation”, - he stated. The draft, initiated by the Government, imposes responsibility for entry to the occupied territories from the prohibited direction. The First Deputy-State Minister of Reintegration, Ketevan Tsikhelashvili elucidated that this prescription is the criminal and administrative responsibility. “Our aim is to make punishment more proportional and fair”, - she stated. As she noted, it does not encroach sovereignty of the country.
According to Koba Davitashvili, he cannot see either the reason for the changes or contradiction.
According to Mikheil Machavariani, on the basis of these changes, the country will have the border, which can be trespassed and entail penalty and the border, in the event of trespassing of which, imposed of criminal responsibility.
In response to interest of Goga Khachidze, which international organization favorite these changes, K. Tsikhelashvili stated that there are a lot of reports and recommendations by our partners, including the Venice Commission, CoE etc. The EU member states, EU missions, EU delegation, USA, CoE experts gave the positive evaluation to the changes.
Giorgi Zhvania echoed criticism by the opposition. According to him, the National Movement and M. Saakashvili did everything to let Russia study its interest in Georgia.
The Parliament will get resume consideration of the draft on May 15 plenary session.