One person charged for leaking video of MP’s private life
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Wednesday, July 24
Mamuka Chelidze, acting Director of Central Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), held a briefing regarding the distribution and spreading of the video reflecting private life of a Georgian MP.
According to him, the person who uploaded and leaked the video was charged by the MIA. As he noted, the Central Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with the General Prosecutor’s Office, as a result of several investigative actions, has revealed the person who was the first to upload the video on social media.
According to the Ministry, a citizen of Georgia D.A., who is serving a prison sentence for murder, received the mentioned recordings from a Russian citizen – M.D. on the Facebook app, Messenger. As Chelidze noted, “secret recordings depicting a Georgian lawmaker’s private life were leaked in January of 2019 from the territory of the Republic of Armenia by a citizen of Georgia.”
“With the help of the Armenian law enforcers, the mobile phone of D.A. has been seized from Armenian prison. It has been stated that video recording has been released using this device. D.A. and M.D. have been charged in absentia, and both of them have been sentenced to pre-trial custody,” noted Chelidze.
Eka Beselia, Georgian MP, talked about the briefing. As she noted, she knew about this person for a long time, “there was nothing new for me. I knew about this prisoner, and I have been asking for a long time now to charge him,” noted MP.
Beselia believes that the agencies “should take this matter more seriously.” As she noted, a few days ago, she asked investigative agency “if D.A. was the one who was responsible for leaking the video, and the representatives of the agency said no. As they told me, they could not identify who was the first source.”
According to the investigation, the footage was secretly taken in May of 2012, for which, in 2016, former high-ranking officials were convicted.
A few days ago, Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, Maya Tskitishvili talked about the leaked videos and said that “talking about the personal life of MP Eka Beselia is already very tiring.” After a huge backlash from society, Tskitishvili still thinks that “there was nothing unethical about my remarks.”
Beselia replied to the Minister and said that “I do not think that I have to say anything about her. She can’t even understand why she has to apologize. No matter who gives you orders, as a woman, you need to think before you speak.”
According to Chelidze, an investigation is in progress under paragraphs I and II, Article 157 (I) of the Criminal Code of Georgia. It should also be noted that for the same case, 19 people have been charged and are currently detained.
