MP Tengiz Sharmanashvili: Baramidze’s statement was catastrophic for Georgia’s image; what ‘repression’ are they talking about?

“Giorgi Baramidze’s public statement was catastrophic for Georgia’s international standing,” stated parliamentary majority MP Tengiz Sharmanashvili, adding that Baramidze’s subsequent clarification only made matters worse.

“Whether Giorgi Baramidze is a patriot or not is not what he is being tried for. He has been charged with a specific criminal offence, namely sabotage. His statement was absolutely catastrophic for Georgia’s image. If we begin claiming that we carried out genocide or extrajudicial executions in the occupied territories, or that we committed war crimes, it is hardly difficult to see where such assertions could lead the issue of our territorial integrity.

He attempted to clarify his statement, but what he said next was even worse than his original remark. First, he claimed the army was doing this; then he claimed it was an enraged populace beyond state control committing these war crimes. Talking about this is frankly embarrassing.

What ‘repression’ are they talking about? Who pulled his tongue to make him say it? Did the state ‘plant’ these words in his mouth? Did someone go and whisper in his ear: ‘We don’t like what you’ve done, we want to repress you, so could you please say this so we have a free hand?’ Is that how these people imagine it? Whatever was done, he did it entirely to himself,” Sharmanashvili stated.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia arrested former Minister of Internal Affairs and Defence (2003–2004) Giorgi Baramidze pursuant to a court warrant on charges of state treason, specifically manifested through sabotage. The charges carry a potential sentence of up to four years’ imprisonment.

According to the official statement from prosecutors, during a July broadcast of Iago Khvichia’s program ‘The Birth of Georgia’, Baramidze alleged that during the initial phase of the 1992–1993 War in Abkhazia, Georgian forces did not take prisoners and executed them on the spot—thereby accusing the national armed forces of violating international humanitarian law and committing grave war crimes.

The court has remanded Baramidze in custody pending trial.