Garibashvili: Saakashvili’s Oslo award - insult to Georgia

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said the awarding of former President Mikheil Saakashvili with Norway’s Sjur Lindebrekke Award for promotion of human rights and democracy was a “mockery” and an “insult” to Georgia’s citizens.

Responding to the awarding of Mikheil Saakashvili with the prize, Garibashvili said the former official had been an “authoritarian, almost dictatorial former ruler” and the “creator of an oppressive, murderous system” in the country during the United National Movement Government Vestnik Kavkaza news agency reports.

The Georgian PM made a reference to the terrorist attacks by Anders Behring Breivik, and said Saakashvili’s “killing of hundreds of people” while in office made granting him with the Lindebrekke Award “almost the same if some country gave Breivik an award”.