Dimitri Samkharadze, the ruling Georgian Dream MP and political council member, admits that he has organized a campaign to incite hatred and violence against journalists, non-governmental organizations, and representatives of opposition political parties.
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On the night of May 31, insulting, defamatory, and threatening inscriptions were once again made on the offices of Mtis Ambebi/Georgian News, the Civil Society Foundation, Sapari, Droa, Girchi - More Freedom, and other civil organizations and parties, or on the residences of the representatives of these organizations.
"The low-quality bullying initiated by neo-fascists and stateless agents was answered yesterday! We won't tolerate you in the slightest and forgive you. Bully each other! What you intend against us, we will return to you a thousand times worse, painful, and of higher quality! You won't want to show up and run into each other. You won't even want to see each other. We'll treat you like that! You are having a lot of fun; We know your identity one by one;your owners can't help you if you do something bad to any member of the Georgian Dream team! So that I don't miss the point, stop looking back; we are not sneaking up on anyone; look ahead; don't step on anything!" Samkharadze attached a video to his status, which was taken while making insulting inscriptions near the offices of Georgian Dream target organizations and the houses of activists.
The list published by Samkharadze includes:
- Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia;
- Tbilisi Pride;
- Sapari
- Nabiji movement;
- Shame movement;
- Georgian Court Watch
- Mtis Ambebi
- Studio Monitori
- Talga movement
- Civil Society Foundation (Soros Foundation);
- International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy;
- International Transparency Batumi;
- Green sector - Batumi;
- Lelo for Georgia
- Girchi - more freedom;
- Girchi - Droa;
- Lelo Georgia - youth;
- National Movement - central;
- Ahali - Gvaramia, Melia;
- UNM - Batumi;
- Lelo - Batumi;
- Ahali - Batumi;
Before Samkharadze's confession, this morning, pro-government televisions Imedi and POS TV broadcast photos and video footage, as if "citizens protested in front of the offices of the radical opposition and non-governmental organizations supporting them."
Posters with the same content were placed near the offices of Mtis Ambebi/Georgian News and Studio Monitori, as well as the homes of the editors of these media organizations, on the instructions of Georgian Dream on May 9. Mtis Ambebi/Georgian News editor Gela Mtivlishvili applied to the Special Investigation Service on the same day requesting an investigation, but no investigation was initiated. The service forwarded the statement to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which did not respond.
Unknown persons sent by the authorities also damaged the car of Studio Monitori’s editor and investigative journalist Nino Zuriashvili. The police initiated an investigation, but three weeks have passed since the crime, and no one has been charged.
"The government's goal is to silence and intimidate people who oppose the Russification of Georgia. We are not going to obey an unconstitutional law. We will not be registered in the register of organizations carrying out the interests of foreign forces," says Gela Mtivlishvili.
