Photographers could face treason charge as protest beckons

The charge against the detained photo reporters might be altered, Lado Machavariani, a defense lawyer, stated on July 20.

He said that the offence was improperly allocated as in accordance with the legislation a suspect of espionage cannot at the same time be a citizen of Georgia.

"The suspect who is charged with espionage cannot be at the same time the citizen of Georgia. Accordingly the article under which they are charged is to be changed. In such a case it will be treason by the three photo reporters, "- defense lawyer of Giorgi Abdaladze said.

In this case, the offence is considered more serious. Defense lawyer also said that his defendant has no complaints about being under physical pressure. "He was not complaining about the physical pressure. In terms of confession and questions, he replied that will speak openly only at the court trial, "- Machavariani, said.

A statement has also been made by another lawyer of Abdaladze at the same time, however with different content. As Eka Beselia, Leader of the Movement of Solidarity to Illegal Prisoners and one of the Lawyers of Abdaladze, said, it is possible that soon the detained will refuse her as his lawyer, "he has told one of his lawyers that he will have to write a statement to refuse me as his lawyer due to my critical attitude towards his testimony. The authorities will make him do that, which is the sign that the investigation is going very fast to process an agreement."

Reaching an agreement has also been suggested in the statement made by Lawyer Zakaria Kutsnashvili, " the decisive thing would be those testimonies which would be voiced during the trial, if their current testimonies will not be backed by trustworthy materials, they will have no meaning, currently, the aim of the authorities is to bring Abdaladze to process an agreement, confirming his guilt and defiling his dignity, " Kutsnashvili, said.

Elsewhere, the Georgian authorities cannot hide their surprise as to why people are so skeptical about the photographers' detention "If we will look at the Russian intelligence services' experience for the last two years we will understand that cases of espionage were very frequent, including in NATO, USA and UK. This is clear for everyone, "- MP, akaki Minashvili said .

The MP said the Russian Federation is continuing the policy of the cold war and a "similar operation" is not surprising in the "neighbouring countries".

"Russia wishes to do something in Georgia, this is a logical conclusion. This is a practice which the Russian Federation performs towards the neighbour countries and as well to strong democratic states, such as the USA, UK, EU, "- MP said.

Despite the authorities' statements, a protest action with demand of photographers release will go on. The Resistance Movement will hold a protest event - SOS Georgia in front of the Rustaveli monument on July 24.

Participants of the event will demand a stop to mass illegal detentions.

The Resistance Movement intends for the protest events to be held permanently.

‘We have a real catastrophe in the country since May 26. The government detains not only media representatives on the charge of espionage, but it also arrests ordinary citizens. Then we see outrageous admissions of guilt. The Georgian society is offended with the lie’, Irma Inashvili, a representative of the Resistance Movement, said.

According to Inashvili, people should show the government that they are not going to surrender, while the international community should realize that Georgia is ruled by a dictator.

The protest event will start at 19:00 on Sunday.