The prosecution’s case, as Interfax relayed it, is that Baramidze publicly spread false information that did serious damage to Georgia’s image: its investigation found no confirmation of what he said. Interpressnews’s account of the hearing adds the other grounds of harm the prosecution listed, to the reputation of the Defence Forces, to the honour of veterans and the fallen, and to the reconciliation process with the conflict-affected population. Novosti Gruzii and Kommersant put the articles at 307 and 318 of the Criminal Code, treason and sabotage; Novosti Gruzii writes the first as 307¹.
The words were said on 18 July on the programme The Birth of Georgia, hosted by Yago Khvichia: ‘We had no prisoners, ours did not take prisoners, ours shot them,’ in JAMnews’s transcription of the clip. Deputy prosecutor general Amiran Guluashvili announced the charge at a briefing on Friday evening, and Baramidze was detained the same evening, Sova reported.
Baramidze’s answer has come in three forms. Before the arrest he said the words were taken out of context, referred to individual fighters in the first weeks of the war and made no claim about the state; after it, in Kommersant’s account, he apologised for a ‘wrong term’ and said that refusing to take prisoners on a battlefield and shooting captives are ‘two different things’; in court on Saturday he said his words had been misinterpreted. The judge was Eka Barbakadze, per Interpressnews.
‘We had no prisoners, ours did not take prisoners, ours shot them,’ in JAMnews’s transcription of the clip.
Baramidze has been interior minister, defence minister and, from 2006 to 2012, vice-premier, and sat in parliament five times, Novosti Gruzii recalls. His case joins Georgia’s autumn court calendar, where former prime minister Irakli Garibashvili, charged under article 338 with taking bribes of about 7 million lari, has a hearing on 19 October.