Public Defender Demands Batumi Prosecutor Investigates Persecution of Journalists

The Public Defender demanded the Batumi Prosecutor to investigate the incident related to the intimidation of representatives of newspaper Batumelebi.

Eter Turadze, the editor in-chief of the newspaper Batumelebi and Natia Rokva, the journalist of the same newspaper met with the representatives of the Public Defender and talked about the circumstances of their persecution by various unidentified persons.

Eter Turadze stated that on the night of July 15, 2008 when she was driving a car from the editorial office home a dark colored car started following her. The strange car even blocked the road several times. On the second day of the incident July 16th Natia Rokva, the journalist of the newspaper Batumelebi was followed by a black Jeep. This was at 11 o’clock in the evening when the journalist was returning home from the office. The journalist was so frightened that she stopped a taxi and caught a ride home.

The newspaper Batumelebi administration received a threatening email on July 18th. It was indicated in the letter that “the murder of Emzar Diasamidze has been ordered and he will be found dead with a newspaper stuffed in his mouth in the nearest future”. The author of the email indicated in the letter that he had damaged the newspaper Batumelebi web site. It turned out after this that there was a virus on the website.

The employees of the newspaper Batumelebi state that in both cases when the cars followed the journalists, the people in the cars wanted to be seen. The Public Defender perceives signs of the crime prescribed by Article 151 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (threats) in these cases.

The Public Defender sent the materials about the incidents to Avtandil Kiladze, Batumi Prosecutor and demanded to study the fact of journalists having been intimidated

Source: Medianews