MP Sharmanashvili: Baramidze’s statement was harmful and posed threat to Georgia

Georgian Dream parliamentary majority member Tengiz Sharmanashvili said a statement by Giorgi Baramidze, over which he was detained, was threatening and damaging to Georgia.

“Let us pay attention to the Prosecutor’s Office statement. What was most important for us was what the prosecutor said — that ‘the fact of executions during these well-known Georgian-Abkhaz events that took place in the 1990s was not established.’ The investigation collected materials, but no such fact was established.

“The main threat posed by Baramidze’s statement was his claim that executions had taken place. In his first statement, he said that our army had carried them out; later he said, no, the army had not done it and that it had been carried out by the local population.

“In both cases, this statement posed a major threat, as it could have been used to make claims against Georgia that mass war crimes had been committed and that this was being acknowledged by a former defense minister and former interior minister. It was completely unacceptable to make such a statement. Had it not been for the context in which all of this happened, we might have considered it a slip of the tongue or an incorrect statement.

“Those representatives of the so-called opposition who are now beating their heads against the wall should have thought about this when their representative was making a statement that was highly damaging to Georgia,” Sharmanashvili said.

Sharmanashvili also said that some opposition representatives had argued that the issue of Georgia’s territorial integrity was hindering national integration and that the problem should be “gotten rid of.”

“Giorgi Baramidze will appear before the justice system and answer for what he did. He has every right to defend himself in court and prove his innocence,” Sharmanashvili said.

Asked about claims by United National Movement members that veterans were being called “scoundrels” because an investigation had been launched following their complaint, Sharmanashvili said it was “truly outrageous” to describe as scoundrels those who had shed blood defending Georgia’s territorial integrity and national interests.

“People who have never lifted a finger for Georgia’s territorial integrity have now turned against those who shed blood. Those who had concerns about Baramidze’s statement and are being called scoundrels — they themselves should truly be considered scoundrels. Veterans fought in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region from the first minute to the last, defending Georgia’s interests and its territorial integrity,” Sharmanashvili said.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia arrested Gia Baramidze, a senior leader of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) and former Minister of Internal Affairs and Defence (2003–2004), pursuant to a court warrant on charges of state treason, specifically manifested through sabotage.