“As you know, our society and we – the government of Georgia, were very worried about the destiny of our two citizens Darejan Kokhtashvili and Babutsa Gordadze for all this time, who were going to be executed in Malaysia. We worked a lot with the government of Malaysia and I recently learned about the good news that Darejan Kokhtashvili was sentenced to 4 years in prison instead of being executed. We are now working to reach a similar sentence for Babutsa Gordadze. Of course after they are sentenced, we will work to have them transferred to a Georgian prison. In the case of Darejan Kokhtashvili this is truly a great relief for us. During this entire time our whole Ministry of Justice and diplomatic representatives worked around the clock on this very tragic destiny of these two persons. Deputy Minister of Justice, Dato Sakavrelidze did a lot to change the sentence of Darejan Kokhtashvili and he is now working on the case of Babutsa Gordadze. This clearly shows that Georgia will never leave its citizens anywhere. We are already a state. The time when there was lawlessness and lack of patronage in the country is left in the past. The citizens of Georgia did not have anybody caring for them and the Georgian Government did not think about their destiny, not even the small diplomatic representatives. Everything has changed now and I would like to thank everyone who worked on this issue.

Also, I cannot go without thanking Giorgi Karbelashvili, because we snatched our sailors from the occupational government who were in captivity in the occupied regions of Georgia. During this entire time Giorgi Karbelashvili was working hard on this issue as in the case of the Somalian pirates. He started working on this right after being cured of tropical malaria, which he picked up in Somalia. Giorgi Karbelashvili travelled abroad several times, visited all of the international organizations and finally reached this result. The fact that we have public servants like Giorgi Karbelashvili, who protect our citizens to the end, is something that gives me hope. We truly created a new tradition in the Georgian civil service – our citizens have such protectors in our state and its representatives” – stated the President of Georgia.