About Georgian Citizenship of Bidzina Ivanishvili and Ekaterine Khvedelidze

Expert’s Opinion

Vakhtang Khmaladze

Endless speculation from the governmental officials about striping of Georgian citizenships from Bidzina Ivanishvili and his wife Ekaterine Khvedelidze encouraged me to write the following letter. The governmental officials allege the citizenships were stripped of them because of obtaining French Citizenship that contradicted the Constitution of Georgia.

I have mentioned in many interviews that this particular decision of the government breached the Constitution of Georgia. This time, I will try to verify non-constitutionalism and illegality of the Georgian President’s decision based on the Constitution and Organic Law on Georgian Citizenship.

So, the facts prove the following:

1. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Bidzina Ivanishvili, who lived in Russia at that time, became citizen of Russia since he held citizenship of the Soviet Union. Thus, in accordance to the Article 3 of the 1993 Organic Law of Georgia on Georgian Citizenship he lost Georgian citizenship since April of 1993.

2. In 2004, citizens of the Russian Federation – Bidzina Ivanishvili and Ekaterine Khvedelidze (the latter was already citizen of France by that time) obtained Georgian citizenship based on the Georgian President’s Decree (N284, 22.07.2004) and based on Article 12, Part 2 of the Constitution of Georgia (who has a special merit before Georgia or grant the citizenship of Georgia to him/her is due to State interests). Thus, they acquired so called double citizenship.

3. Bidzina Ivanishvili obtained French Citizenship after he had received Georgian citizenship. So, afterwards he simultaneously held citizenships of the Russian Federation, Georgia and France that means “double citizenship.”

4. Based on the Georgian President’s Decree (N602, 11.10.2011) and in accordance to the Article 32 – “d” of the Organic Law of Georgia on Georgian Citizenship, Georgian citizenships were stripped of Bidzina Ivanishvili and Ekaterine Khvedelidze because of their French Citizenship.

Now, let us analyze corresponding norms of the Constitution of Georgia and Organic Law of Georgia on Georgian Citizenship and the conclusion will be clear.

In order to clarify the issue of citizenship, person should first of all consider the Constitution of Georgia; the law can only estimate the norms which are necessary for the implementation of the constitutionally adopted principles and those norms shall comply with those principles.

What does the Constitution of Georgia states?  In Accordance to the Article 12, Georgian citizenship shall be acquired by birth and naturalization or President of Georgia shall grant Citizenship to a citizen of foreign country. It is clear that naturalization and granting citizenship are completely different legal norms.

The restriction that a citizen of Georgia shall not at the same time be a citizen of another state deals only with a person who obtained citizenship of Georgia either by birth or by naturalization and does not work for a citizen of a foreign state who obtained citizenship for a special merit.

Thus, the Constitution of Georgia, as well as Organic Law on Georgian Citizenship estimates two possible cases about a Georgian citizen.

a) general situation – a person is a citizen of Georgia by birth or naturalization and he shall not hold citizenship of another state at the same time. It means, if a citizen of Georgia by birth or naturalization obtains citizenship of other state, he/she will breach the Constitution and the Law might strip of his/her citizenship (as it is envisaged by Article 32-“d” of the Organic Law of Georgia on Georgian Citizenship) and the sanction will comply with the restrictions estimated by the Constitution.

b) exceptional situation (so-called double citizenship) – a person can hold Georgian citizenship together with the citizenship of another state (if the Georgian citizenship was granted by the President of Georgia for a special merit to Georgia) and this right does not envisage restriction for number or name of another country.

The Constitution does not clarify whether a person shall not obtain citizenship of another state after he is granted with Georgian citizenship. So, the right of the person to hold Georgian citizenship together with another state’s citizenship does not depend on his obtaining of citizenship of one or more states after he was granted with Georgian citizenship.

The absence of similar restriction in the Constitution is completely logical because obtaining citizenship of another state after he had been granted Georgian citizenship does not change his legal status. It is obvious that similar restriction cannot be estimated by the Law because it contradicts the Constitution.

In addition to that, in accordance to the Georgian Constitution, the procedure for the acquisition and loss of citizenship shall be determined by the Organic Law, that means the Law determines only the procedures and it cannot determine acquisition or loss of citizenship apart as it was determined by the Constitution. The Organic Law does not envisage similar restriction and suspension of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s citizenship based on Article 32 “d” of the Organic Law is a result of selfish and non-constitutional interpretation of the norm.
 
It is also noteworthy that granting Georgian citizenship is kind an award for “a special merit to the Georgian state” or grant citizenship “due to state interests” and not due to his/her personal interests. So, neither Constitution nor the Organic Law estimates any other conditions to acquire citizenship unlike granting citizenship which contain several necessary requirements (has been permanently residing within the territory of Georgia during the last five years, knows the state language at the established minimum, is familiar with the history and legislation of Georgia at the established minimum, has a job or any real estate on the territory of Georgia).

And thus, denial to grant citizenship of Georgia works only for those citizens of Georgia who obtained citizenship by birth or naturalization and does not work for them who were granted by Georgian citizenship because obtaining of another state’s citizenship cannot abolish “his special merit to Georgia.”

Even if this circumstance really existed, it might cause curious situation: just imagine that a citizen of a foreign state received Georgian citizenship because of his/her special merit but after some time the president of another country also granted him/her citizenship because of his special merit to his country; what should we do in similar situation? Shall we suspend his/her citizenship? Did the citizenship of the third country annul his/her merit to Georgia? It is absurd (!).

All abovementioned circumstances prove that suspension of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian citizenship breached the Constitution of Georgia and Organic Law of Georgia on Georgian Citizenship. As for suspension of Georgian citizenship for Ekaterine Khvedelidze, it cannot be justified even by the same arguments that were used in Ivanishvili’s case. 

The Letter initially was published by newspaper “Resonance”