On September 26, a rally was organized by Alt-Info on Rustaveli Avenue, near the Parliament building, with the only demand: the release of those arrested on absurd charges after the events of July 5-6. Hundreds of citizens came to the rally to demand that the government heed the demands of the people, but as some detainees’ family members, relatives and lawyers said, they did not expect objectivity from the judiciary, because the court is under some pressure from the government, while the government is under some pressure of the US Embassy.
After the rally, we asked the founders of “Alt-Info” – Shota Martinenko and Giorgi Kardava, as well as the heads of human rights organizations – Nikoloz Mzhavanadze and Nana Kakabadze to assess the above-mentioned issue.
“Provocateurs with cameras and microphones came and artificially created a situation where someone lost patience and got into a fight”
Shota Martinrnko, one of the founders of “Alt-Info :
– The demand of the protesters is known. We demand the release of those arrested on absurd charges following the events of July 5-6. As you know, more than 30 people have been arrested and cases have been filed against them under inadequate, unjust articles. The investigation is trying to take the case and present everything as if organized violence. But, a number of circumstances and facts prove that most of the detainees did not know each other at all. Clearly, the prosecution needs all this to aggravate the charge. The motive is understandable, of course, we all well understand that external forces are also behind such a biased and artificially aggravated, unjust decision. Clearly, I mean, first of all, the US Embassy, which directly, openly criticized the people for not allowing the LGBT Pride parade to take place and demanded that the government severely punish the “perpetrators”. As for the events of July 5-6, everyone could see how they behaved on that day. Liberal media representatives – how they tried to irritate the public. The provocateurs with cameras and microphones artificially created a situation to get someone out of patience. Exactly such actions were followed by clashes and confrontations, but the articles used by the prosecutor’s office against the detainees are absolutely unjust and artificially aggravated. We, of course, will not ignore this topic with the public, and as long as these patriotic boys remain in prison, we will do our best to ensure that they return to their families very soon.
„Where will this ugly policy lead the government, it will see soon!“
Giorgi Kardava, one of the founders of Alt-Info:
– In a country where the people who stormed the parliament on June 20 are unpunished and threaten to return to power with revolution and destruction, it is clear that the imprisonment of these patriotic people is a celebration of injustice. Thus, in fact, the existing system tells us that here, in this country, national dignity and values cannot be protected from outside LGBT dirt and we must not vote, otherwise we will be severely punished. Obviously, no one will tolerate this and they will soon see where this ugly policy will lead the government
As for the rally itself, of course, the rally is very important for all of us to show solidarity with the detainees once again. These guys, I repeat, did the most important thing at the cost of their freedom, and if not for such people, the outsiders who were funded by the LGBT liberals who ousted the so-called July 5 They were provocatively announced in the march of honor, maybe they even achieved the set goal.
The government should understand that by imprisoning these people, it is losing a lot, it is losing its already declining rating, so all this should be worrying for it, especially in the light of the local self-government elections to be held in a few days.
„They have been sucking blood of Georgia for 30 years and they are doing everything to leave nothing national, traditional and Christian in this country”
Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, Chairman of the Union of Human Rights Defenders:
– The young people detained after the events of July 5-6 are the personal prisoners of the Ambassador of the United States of America to Georgia, Kelly Degnan. In addition, they are prisoners of the Western Globalist Centers, the EU Delegation, the foreign-funded third sector, the LGBT community and ostensibly international human rights organizations. Today I do not really dare to say this and I say what I say with full responsibility: for 30 years they have been sucking the blood of Georgia and doing everything to leave nothing national, traditional, valuable and, most importantly, nothing Christian left in this country. In fact, these forces are driving all these liberal repressions, and no one should think that what we are seeing today, I mean the persecution of a healthy, conservative society, has something to do with the real legal process. By the way, despite the fact that more than 30 people have been arrested on absurd charges and the prosecutor’s office is making every effort to aggravate their situation, the US ambassador is still not satisfied. She said that more austerity is needed and that justice should be even more principled, that is, in practice, the government should have pointed a finger at why it did not arrest more people. As for the government, the ruling team unfortunately could not withstand the pressure and carried out the task, but as a result got an even more irritated, dissatisfied public. This dissatisfaction is directly proportional to the reduction of the government’s already unfavorable rating. For a long time now, we have been seeing double standards in this country from a legal point of view, which has practically disappeared the sense of justice in the society. If you are declared a political prisoner of Zhorika Rurua, if Nika Melia is paid bail by the European Union and people fighting against sodomists are imprisoned, can we talk about justice and fairness ?! The action, of course, was very important and important in the sense that the government received a certain message
– Will the government listen to all this and withstand the pressure of the West?
– Otherwise it will receive wrath of the Georgian people. Zhorika Rurua, Ugulava, a thief of millions, and others should be free, and these guys were in jail? The government has a choice – either to stand up to the call and act as the Georgian people dictate, or to follow the hysterical demands of the Degnans, Hartzels, Lomjarias and their followers. Here is the dilemma. So if they do it right – people will see, if not – they will get the right result. As for the liberal media, which is constantly engaged in blackmailing patriotic boys and calling them abusers, the public certainly knows, and it is not news that they are funded by Western funds. They are not ordinary media outlets, but party agitation-propaganda bodies that take money to blackmail and disgrace someone. That’s their business, and if we have a normal, national government, of course, such harmful activities should be banned by law.
“It was a protest of the people against the ideological violence perpetrated by a small group against the rest of the population”.
Nana Kakabadze, Head of the non-governmental organization “Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights”:
– As a human rights activist, I can say that I am in favor of a humane approach by the government to the citizen when there is a crime in the face. As for this particular case, it was such a category of cases that you can not even call it a crime. I say from a purely moral point of view. It was a protest of the people against the ideological violence perpetrated by a small group against the rest of the population. But the judiciary has somehow acted very strongly in these cases and for me as a human rights activist, this is unacceptable. Clearly, the court’s decision is excessive and unjust, because there could have been punitive sanctions here. As for the expectations, I think the government will have to pass a kind of test in these cases as well, because the society is waiting for a decision. If the government has the courage and the principality to withstand the pressure, then the decisions will be fair, otherwise, as criminals were released with a wave of their fingers, innocent people can be imprisoned.
– The biggest pressure is probably from the American embassy.
– Not only from the American embassy, there is pressure from the media as well. This one is whole, however for the management team in this case the decision must be unambiguous. You can not always go against the will of your own people to glorify someone and even claim to adhere to democratic principles. Democracy is not a dictatorship of the minority over the majority, democracy has nothing to do with the violence of a handful of marginalized groups or groups against 99% of the country’s population, which does not even allow them to protect themselves from violence. That’s the reality, and I think there are still people in power today who understand that. At any rate, they realize that ignoring the will of the people at a time when they have not been able to emerge from a political crisis for so long can play a crucial role in ending their rule very poorly.
Interviewed by Jaba Zhvania
