Another video of politician's intimate life appears on internet
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, March 15
The Chief Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into another video showing the private life of a public official released early on March 14.
The video was aired after a sex video was released on March 11 on Youtube - allegedly depicting one of the opposition leaders - which caused outage and concern amongst the public.
The faces in the latest video were pixelated, though a text was written below the footage in which addresses the involved politicians and threatens them with a demand to leave politics, otherwise more videos will be released.
“Leave politics and we will not releases videos, otherwise there is more to come,” said the anonymous perpetrator.
Unlike the March 11 video that was viewed by about 135 people, the latest footage was immediately removed from Youtube.
The Government and the majority say the release of such videos is an “attack against the state”, and those releasing such videos will be severely punished.
Meanwhile, the opposition is accusing the Government of being behind the release.
“I hope that the relevant authorities will find the people who committed this act and will appropriately punish them. The violation of privacy is totally unacceptable,” the British Ambassador to Georgia, Alexandra Hall Hall, said.
According to the Ambassador, the government has a serious approach towards the issue. She also noted that Georgian society unanimously condemned the release of the videos.
“Unanimity and solidarity amongst the people makes me hopeful that Georgian society is heading in the right direction. I fully support the government of Georgia in the investigation of this incident,” Hall Hall added.
Public disgust at videos depicting private lives and sexual abuse in prisons were one of the main reasons the UNM was defeated by the GD coalition in the 2012 parliamentary race.
About 110 CDs containing a total of 144 files with over 181 hours of secret video recordings of the private lives of citizens obtained by the previous government through illegal surveillance were destroyed on September 5 2013 by the current Government with the promise that such videos would have never disturb the public again.
However, the current GD members do not exclude the possibility that copies of such videos are still in the possession of UNM members.
In May 2013, Georgia’s First Deputy Interior Minister Gela Khvedelidze was fired as he spread similar videos of a man who was criticising the GD Government and Khvedelidze personally.
Khvedelidze was dismissed from his position and also had to pay a fine for committing the offence.
