Kobakhidze said he did not want to send the 72-year-old Zurabishvili to prison.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that the country's President Salome Zurabishvili faces criminal liability if she appoints new parliamentary elections or refuses to leave the presidential residence.

"I am sure that she will have enough common sense not to violate the norms of the Criminal Code," Kobakhidze said at a briefing on December 22.

No one would like to send a 72-year-old woman to prison, but by her actions she would have exposed both herself and her employees in the presidential administration, Kobakhidze added.

Mikhail Kavelashvili is due to assume presidential powers on December 29. Earlier, Zurabishvili stated that she was not going to leave her post, she considers both the parliament of the XI convocation and the elected president illegitimate.