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Photographers found guilty, released under conditional sentences
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Author: By Ia Natsvlishvili
The photographers’ case, which was the most highly-debated issue of this summer ended on July 22, as after fifteen days of detention, the photographers were released by the decision of the Tbilisi City Court.
The court announced that Zurab Kurtsikidze, a photographer for the Frankfurt-based European Pressphoto Agency (EPA), Irakli Gedenidze, photographer of President Mikheil Saakashvili and Giorgi Abdaladze, photographer for the Foreign Ministry (an employee of the Alia Holding at the same time) were found guilty and were freed under conditional sentences.
The Tbilisi City Court sitting which lasted for about fifty- minutes said that Kurtsikidze was sentenced to a two-year conditional sentence, while Abdaladze and Gedenidze received three-year conditional sentences. Gedenidze’s wife, Natia Gedenidze who was released on bail two days after being arrested, received a six-month conditional sentence. The photographers remain under probation and have no right to leave the country.
Despite the confessionary statements of the photographers, several within the media ranks and some public representatives had questioned the arrests, believing that those confessions were the result of intense investigative pressure placed on them.
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US was concerned over Akhalia’s candidacy as Defense Minister
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Author: By Irakli Aladashvili
The well known WikiLeaks, known for its role in uncovering thousands of classified documents and revealing the inside communications of many politicians worldwide, has released more documents. It has become known that the United States harbored enmity towards Georgia’s appointment of Bacho Akhalaia as the head of the Defense.
In a month it will be exactly two years since Bacho Akhalaia’s appointment as the Defense Minister and only now has it become clear that the U.S. government had expressed strong concerns over his appointment during the negotiations that took place with President Mikheil Saakashvili.
WikiLeaks published one of the documents sent in September 2009 from the U.S. Embassy in Georgia to Washington. The document touched upon the conversation between Tina Kaydenau, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and President Mikheil Saakashvili, while she was on an official visit to Tbilisi.
The letter was presumably prepared by the representatives of the U.S. Embassy who attended the meeting. The letter read that “Kaydenau expressed concern about the appointment of Bacho Akhalaia as Defense Minister, referring to the shadows of his past in terms of human rights’ protection.”
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Norwegian police finds body of slain Georgian girl
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Author: By Nino Edilashvili
After seven days of intensive searching, a Georgian girl, Tamta Liparteliani,, who was one those missing after the massacre that took place on the island of Utoeya in Norway on July 22, was found and identified as one of the dead.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, the Norwegian government will take responsibility for financing the transportation of the girl’s body to Georgia. There will be compensations for the victims of this tragedy, said Nino Kalandadze, the deputy foreign minister at Wednesday’s press briefing.
“The Norwegian police asked us for Liparteliani’s fingerprints to assist them in identification,” Kalandadze said and explained that after they sent all the required documents, the Norwegian police identified the body. “She had two bullets in her back and was found in the water,” she said.
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Georgian, Russian Church leaders focus on breakaway regions
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Author: By Nino Edilashvili
Patriarch Kiril, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, while meeting with his Georgian counterpart Ilia II, confirmed the Georgian Orthodox church’s authority over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgia’s two breakaway regions.
After the meeting, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said that they discussed several problems, including those related to church life in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. “We have discussed problematic topics in an atmosphere of brotherly love and peace,” he said.
“It is clear that the Georgian Patriarchate has canonical jurisdiction over the territory of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” Russian Patriarch Kirill told reporters.
The heads of Russian and Georgian Churches met on July 26, in the Kievo-Pechora Monastery, in Kiev. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the events to mark the conversion to Christianity of Kievan Rus 1,023 years ago.
Ilia II also said after the meeting that the two had a “brotherly conversation.” He expressed hope that “frequent meetings” between the Russian and Georgian church representatives will bear fruit.
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