UNM parliamentary minority group said that having no progress in investigation into the attack on UNM MP Nugzar Tsiklauri more than two weeks ago suggests that the law enforcement agencies are trying “to hush up the case”.

“Throughout this period the investigation has failed to make any progress and we see complete ignorance on the part of the law enforcement agencies towards this case,” UNM MP Levan Bezhashvili said at a parliamentary session on April 16. “We will probably raise the issue of setting up an investigative parliamentary commission over this case.”

Responding to these remarks, parliament speaker Davit Usupashvili said: “Once again we want to voice a clear position that in a country where beating up of a lawmaker is not timely investigated, not a single citizen can feel safe.”

“We call on the law enforcement agencies once again to solve this case as soon as possible and to shed the light on what has happed with Mr. Tsiklauri. I hope that those times have gone in Georgia when nine years are required for investigating such cases,” Usupashvili said, referring to the case when MP Valeri Gelashvili was brutally beaten up on 2005; prosecutor’s office said recently that investigation of attack on Gelashvili nine years ago was nearing to its end.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office told Civil.ge on Tuesday that “intensive investigation” is ongoing into the case of attack on MP Tsiklauri, but declined to discuss the details.

Lawmaker from the GD parliamentary majority group Gubaz Sanikidze of the National Forum party also commented on the issue during the parliamentary session on April 16 and said that investigation of the attack on MP Tsiklauri “is a matter of prestige for our government.”