Giorgi Baramidze: This process is an ordinary Russian method of blackening a person, of throwing a person’s name and biography into the mud – can anyone accuse me of wanting something bad for this country? It is simply blasphemy – if I have hurt anyone’s feelings, I have also apologized
This process serves one aim; this is an ordinary Russian method of blackening a person, of throwing a person’s name and biography into the mud, – this was stated at the court hearing by one of the leaders of the “National Movement,” Giorgi Baramidze.
According to Giorgi Baramidze, what he is being accused of is a lie and he did not say it.
“I have spent my entire life in the service of this country; if anything happened in the country, I was always on the front line, whether it was a peaceful front or an armed one. No one can say about me that I fell short in anything in the struggle for this country. Can anyone accuse me of wanting something bad for this country? It is simply blasphemy.
They are accusing me of something that is a lie; I myself am saying that it is a lie. Whether you want it or not, you said this – I am saying that I did not say it and I explained it; I also acknowledged that whichever word cuts the ear, someone may use it, it is incorrect, and in writing, orally, in appeals, on television, on Facebook, I explained it. If I have hurt anyone’s feelings, I have also apologized,” Giorgi Baramidze stated.
For reference: one of the leaders of the “National Movement,” Giorgi Baramidze, has been arrested on charges of treason against the homeland, specifically sabotage.
The case concerns a statement made by Baramidze about the war in Abkhazia. Specifically, Baramidze’s statement according to which “at the initial stage of the armed conflict in Abkhazia in 1992–1993, representatives of the Georgian armed forces did not take prisoners and shot them on the spot.”
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, his statement caused damage to the reputation of the Defense Forces of Georgia, insulted the honor and dignity of the veterans who participated in the war in Abkhazia and of the fallen military servicemen. At the same time, Giorgi Baramidze’s action created a threat to the process of reconciliation and restoration of trust with the population affected by the conflict, damaged Georgia’s peace and de-occupation policy and hindered the normal functioning of state agencies, including the implementation of the activities of the Office of the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality and the effective functioning of the mechanisms created by it in the direction of restoration of trust and cooperation. The said charge provides for a sentence of up to 4 years’ imprisonment.
