Parliament speaker, Davit Usupashvili, said that U.S. Department of State’s statement expressing concern over Georgian prosecutors’ decision to summon former president Mikheil Saakashvili for questioning is “very unambiguous” and warns Georgia to be especially careful now when “so much is at stake.”

“The State Department’s statement is very unambiguous and very refined – the one that we should expect from our well-wisher, strong and strategic partner, who is telling us to be even more careful than we should usually be when it comes to prosecutors, questioning etc. now in the existing situation when so much is at stake,” Usupashvili told journalists in Tbilisi on March 24.

“So I think when prosecutors have a question towards someone, this question should be asked and everyone is obliged to answer that question and, at the same time, if a question arise towards prosecutor’s office itself, prosecutors should also explain why now and why on these issues. I think that if everyone gives right answers to questions asked by prosecutors and if we also give right answers to the issues raised by the State Department, everything will have a happy ending,” he said.

The U.S. Department of State said that “no one is above the law, but launching multiple simultaneous investigations involving a former President raises legitimate concerns about political retribution, particularly when legal and judicial institutions are still fragile” in Georgia.