Georgia’s Girchi party opens a brothel in its office
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, May 13
Girchi, a libertarian political party in Georgia founded in 2015, has decided to rent a part in its headquarters in central Tbilisi Mtatsminda district as a brothel, which is a criminal offense in Georgia, punishable by three to six years in prison.
The party founder Zurab Japaridze made the announcement last week, in the wake of the detention of a hotel owner in Tbilisi Roena Khutsurauli for the support of legal prostitution.
Japaridze says that prostitution should be legalized in Georgia and sex workers must not be suppressed any longer.
“Since the Soviet period, the Georgian government treats sex workers as if they were not humans. Moreover, when the governments in the country wish to recover specific issues, they exercise pressure on the people, detain them, etc.,” Japaridze said.
He stated that those who wish to spend time with sex workers, can bring them to the party office and rent a specially allocated space for 49.90 Lari, which is about 20 dollars.
Japaridze says that the government “will have to detain all the members of the party [for the crime], or release those who have been charged with the support of prostitution over the past years.”
The party made the photos of the room public, which is open to be rented.
The space for prostitution has been named 'Pioneer,' which was the children’s communist organization in the Soviet Union.
Members of the Georgian Dream government say that the country follows the traditions of Christianity and prostitution will not be legalized in Georgia, where the "family values are of the highest importance."
Khutsurauli, known with the name of Mamida [aunt], who is a famous figure in Tbilisi, has been released on the 30,000 GEL bail on Friday. Khutsurauli had been detained under the previous two governments of Georgia with the same charge but was released shortly.
She has had a hotel just behind the police building in the Gldani district of Tbilisi for more than ten years.
She told the court that she is an innocent pensioner, renting her hotel. Khutsurauli noted she had plans to renew the hotel into a shelter for elderly people.
