Chkhorotsku Court Sentenced Georgian Dream’s Activist to 35 days Imprisonment

On September 8, Chkhorotsku Court sentenced Edem Kvaratskhelia- Georgian Dream’s activist to 35 days administrative imprisonment. Edem Kvaratskhelia was charged under Article 166 (minor hooliganism) of the Administrative Code of Georgia.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs Kvaratskhelia was at the meeting in Napichkholo village. The majoritarian candidate of a political party was meeting local inhabitants there. Edem Kvaratskhelia insulted journalists of Samegrelo media organization verbally and physically during the above-mentioned meeting. He damaged their camera. In spite of the fact Koba Aleksandria-the injured cameraman of the Smo.ge did not appear at the court.

The election HQ of Levan Izoria-the majoritarian candidate of the Georgian Dream in Chkhorotsku has completely different information about the incident.  Levan Izoria-the majoritarian candidate held the special briefing about the detention of the coalition member Edem Kvaratskhelia and denied the accusation about the imposed charge about breaking the video-camera and assault.

“This is next operation of the government against Georgian Dream’s activists. Nobody damaged camera. Although we prohibited video-recording of our meeting, smo.ge continued filming us. Population did not want to be video-recorded. According to voters’ request we do not take journalists to any of our meetings because people are afraid. They say the videos are taken to the Security Office where they work out information about the people detected in the videos. Then they visit them at home and request explanations why they had attended the meetings of the opposition party. So, we freely meet voters without cameras,” Levan Izoria.

The candidate said the government has got concerned by their meetings with population. “I walked 30 kilometers in one day, met and talked with several thousand people. Apparently, the local government got concerned about this fact and decided to hinder our activities with similar methods. However, nothing can scare us. We will increase our efforts in future.”

He clarified that representative of the so-called media organization was officer of the MIA. “I want to attract your attention to interesting information – Koba Aleksandria is an officer of Chkhorotsku district police security service.”

Head of smo.ge Malkhaz Basilaia did not agree with Izoria. He categorically demanded to show the video-recording during the briefing. Basilaia alleged that journalist was insulted and his professional activities were hindered.

Inga Gvasalia, Samegrelo