Founder of the Civic Movement for People calls for Georgia’s Prosecutor General Office to investigate alleged illegal surveillance against her

Founder of the civic movement for People and the former government official Anna Dolidze stated on her Twitter page that a day prior, an opposition minded Mtavari Arkhi TV Channel released an “alarming” interview with a former employee of the State Security Service. In this interview, the currently detained Vano Gulashvili confesses to allegedly damaging the projector of the opposition during the June 20 rallies, as well as illegally installing several surveillance devices in the homes of some of the Georgia’s top-ranking officials, including Anna Dolidze, upon the request of the former Deputy Interior Minister Kakhaber Sabanadze. Dolidze stated that she is deeply concerned by the news, and called for the Ombudswoman of Georgia to hold an immediate investigation into the fact of possible illegal surveillance against her:

“Alarming news: Yesterday TV Mtavari published a testimony by a former security services employee stating that he had installed video surveillance in my apartment and had recorded "private character" materials. This can't pass uninvestigated. I ask for your support in this matter”, Dolidze said in her post.

Georgian Ombudswoman, Nino Lomjaria held a meeting with the US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan today. Following the meeting, the US Embassy released a statement in which it condemned the “politicized attacks” on the General Prosecutor’s Office:

“I was very sorry to hear that there have been some attacks against the PDO. That kind of hate speech is toxic language, especially against an office that is serving the public in such an important way and trying to help every person in Georgia have their human rights respected. The Public Defender’s Office also plays such an important role in holding public officials accountable, and that is again something that Georgia needs to do more of: more accountability, more transparency and less hate speech and vicious attacks against others. Again it was a very informative and useful meeting”, Ambassador Kelly Degnan said in a statement.

The Deputy Minister of Interior Kakhaber Sabanadze resigned amidst the release of Vano Guluashvili’s testimony. On his Facebook page, Sabanadze said that during the years of his service to the country, he “always strictly adhered to the rule of law, which is and always has been his main priority”, and that his decision to resign was motivated solely by the fact that he wanted the investigation into the alleged crimes listed in Guluashvili’s testimony to be trusted.