Georgia: the case of the photographers

The Tbilisi City Court has sentenced the personal photographer of President Saakashvili, Irakli Gedenidze, photographer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Georgy Abdaladze, and a reporter of the European photo agency, Zurab Kurtsikidze, to two-month pre-trial detention on accusations of spying.

During a recent operation the Intelligence Department of the Georgian Interior Ministry arrested five professional photographers, including the wife of Saakshvili’s personal photographer, press photographer of the newspaper "Prime-time", Natiya Gedenidze, and AP reporter Shah Aivazov. Aivazov was questioned as a witness and released a few hours later, while Natia Gedenidze was released on bail. After urgent demands from the journalistic community and international organizations (including the US State Department) some details of the case were released. An official representative of the Interior Ministry said that the case was concerned with spying for the Russian GRU.

Kurtsikidze is considered the main defendant in the case. The Georgian Ministry of Interior Affairs has issued a videotape of Gedenidze’s confession. He told investigators that he initially used to pass to Kurtsikidze only photos of meetings between the president and foreign guests to be sent to the European photo agencies. After some time Kurtsikidze began to demand Gedenidze to write articles and comments on these photos with detailed accounts of the meetings. When Gedenidze refused, Kurtsikidze reminded him of payments he had already received. According to the investigation, Kurtsikidze used the same pattern in his collaboration with the Foreign Ministry press photographer Georgy Abdaladze.

In contrast to Irakli Gedenidze, Zurab Kurtsikidze and Georgy Abdaladze have not admitted guilt. Abdaladze has announced that he is going on hunger strike, and the media holding "Aliya", Abdaladze’s employer, urged the international community to save the life of the journalist. When the expired 48-hour period provided by law expired, the detainees were formally charged under article 314 of the Code of Georgia for "Collection, storage and transfer of information constituting state secrets to foreign organizations." The Tbilisi City Court sentenced Gedenidze, Abdaladze and Kurtsikidze to two months pre-trial detention. Natia Gedenidze was released on a bail of 10 thousand GEL (6000 dollars) - the court took into account that she has two children under 18.

The trial will begin in September and will be held behind closed doors. On July 11 several media organizations held protests outside the Georgian Interior Ministry demanding to stop the pressure on the journalists and for them to be released from prison.

Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for VK