TBILISI, August 4 – Georgia’s Revenue Service has launched an investigation after media reports that Germany’s ambassador in Tbilisi, Peter Fischer, is renting a Tbilisi apartment owned by the family of Mamuka Khazaradze, leader of the opposition Lelo party.
Initial analysis reportedly revealed a possible violation of tax law, prompting formal tax-control measures to examine whether the rental income has been declared.
The investigation comes after several days of leading Georgian Dream officials slamming the ambassador for allegedly having a a conflict of interest and being in breach of diplomatic protocol. They pointed to the ambassador showing up at opposition events, such as the hunger strike of Elene Khoshtaria of the Droa party earlier this year.
Both Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Parliament Vice Speaker Gia Volski sharply criticized the rental arrangement with the Khazaradze family and argued that a diplomat renting from an opposition figure undermines diplomatic neutrality.
Neither Ambassador Fischer nor the German Embassy had issued a comment at time of publication, but lawyers for Mamuka Khazaradze’s family dismissed reports of irregularities in the rental agreement with the German Embassy as a “propagandistic attack”. They say the lease is fully legal and notarized, and that undocumented arrangements with a diplomatic mission would be impossible
