This Affects You Responds to the Detention of Former Senior Officials for Illegally Obtained Personal Life Video

Reportedly, today, on April 8, the prosecutor’s office arrested former senior officials for allegedly having illegally obtained personal life video footage. The detainees do not admit the accusation and their guiltiness cannot be ascertained until the court passes verdict. However, we welcome active investigative procedures conducted by the prosecutor’s office of Georgia and arrest of alleged perpetrators as well as update of the society about the ongoing investigation procedures. We hope, the prosecutor’s office has collected valid evidence and the common courts will study them in details. 

We believe effective work of investigative bodies and some result in it was outcome of civil activism. Besides that, it is important to continue investigation. Namely, they should estimate when, who and how organized the obtain and storage of secret video footage. It should be estimated who gave illegal orders to the detainees and who stood behind the creation of archive of personal life video footage. At the same time, the prosecutor’s office shall get interested in the statements of concrete persons (Eka Mishveladze, Nika Gvaramia, Aleksandre Elisashvili), who claimed that they were blackmailed with the personal life video footage. The Campaign This Affects You still requests resignation of those persons from the law enforcement bodies, who stood behind the systemic crime of breaching the right to personal life. 

To ensure trust in and transparency of the process, due to high public interest in the case, the law enforcement bodies shall continue informing the society about ongoing investigation process.