Georgian Olympic Committee Impeaches Patarkatsishvili
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 2007-10-09 18:57:12
Georgian National Olympic Committee (GNOC) overwhelmingly voted for impeaching its president, Badri Patarkatsishvili, on October 9.
The move comes a day after ruling party officials accused Patarkatsishvili of “plotting intrigues” against the state “with the hands of” Irakli Okruashvili, ex-defense minister.
In a taped video testimony released by the General Prosecutor’s Office on October 8, Okruashvili retracted his accusations against President Saakashvili of plotting murder of Patarkatsishvili and said that his accusation aimed at “gaining political dividends” for him and Patarkatsishvili.
26 members of the GNOC executive council out of 29 present voted for Patarkatsishvili’s impeachment, one abstained, one voted against and one walked out from the special session of the council in protest.
Gogi Topadze, a beer magnate and founder of the Industrialist Party who also is the president of Georgian Winter Sports Federation, will act as the GNOC president before new elections which are scheduled for October 29. Topadze said after voting that he had abstained.
Nona Gaprindashvili, the president of the Georgian Chess Federation, said the GNOC’s decision to impeach Patarkatsishvili was a result of pressure from the authorities.
“Most of the presidents of the [various sports] federations are those from the ruling party,” Gaprindashvili, who voted against, told reporters. “It was an obvious pressure from the authorities… from [the minister for culture and sport Goka] Gabashvili and [head of the department for sport Davit] Namgalauri.”
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Nona is still awesome.