“Since November 23, 2003, not a single day has dawned in this country without someone being humiliated, beaten, or killed – whether in front of their wife and children or neighbors. Executioners were in power,” – journalist Giorgi Mamatsashvili stated during a session of Parliament’s Temporary Investigative Commission.

Today’s session of the commission discussed violations of media and freedom of expression under the rule of the United National Movement government.

“I’m not saying what happened on May 26, 2011, was the ‘navel of the Earth,’ some kind of new discovery or the worst thing to ever happen in world history. But it’s easy to say – ‘you know, we’ve seen worse.’ Yes, I’ve seen worse – personally, on May 20, 2007, when I ran five minutes from the publishing house to the corner of Shanidze Street, where the recently deceased academician Guram Sharadze was lying on the ground, murdered – executed – precisely because his guiding principles were “homeland, language, and faith.”

Yes, there were worse cases, like what happened to Giorgi Abdaladze, Irakli Gedenidze, or the story told by Sulkhan Molashvili’s father. I am alive – and forgive me for quoting Mark Twain – ‘Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.’ I’m alive, yes, and there were worse things than what happened to me and Beka.

Since November 23, 2003, there hasn’t been a single day when someone wasn’t thrown out of their home, humiliated in front of their wife, children, or neighbors – beaten or killed. And what, there was less happening in prisons? No. Thank you to Saakashvili and Merabishvili for not imprisoning me, and for harassing me and my friends from afar.

It is with this mindset that I respond to anyone who dares to think that worse things didn’t happen. Of course worse things happened – and that is the tragedy of this country, that for so many years, executioners were in charge. And yes, what happened then was even worse,” – Mamatsashvili said.