Georgian court orders two months’ pretrial detention for opposition figure Gia Baramidze

Tbilisi City Court has ordered two months of pretrial detention for Gia Baramidze, a senior member of Georgia’s opposition United National Movement and a former interior and defence minister who has been charged with treason, specifically sabotage.

The decision was announced by Judge Eka Barbakhadze.

Speaking during the court hearing, Baramidze rejected the interpretation prosecutors have placed on his earlier remarks and criticised the Prosecutor’s Office for what he described as selective enforcement.

“This Prosecutor’s Office has never once tried to investigate when the country’s highest-ranking officials, including the current prime minister, and the Russian dictator say that Georgia started the war,” Baramidze said.

“These people say that we supposedly have to apologise. Those who are guilty apologise. Are we guilty for fighting against our enemies? Is our crime that we fought and defended our homeland?”

Baramidze also addressed controversy over his use of the Georgian word meaning “we were shooting them,” acknowledging that the wording had been inappropriate but insisting that his remarks had been misrepresented.

“The word ‘we were shooting’ creates a certain association, and I should not have used it,” he said. “But I absolutely did not express the meaning they are now trying to attribute to me.”

“If anyone became a victim of this propaganda, I apologise — to those who believed it without watching my interview,” Baramidze added.

Georgia’s Prosecutor’s Office detained Baramidze on September 11 under a court order and charged him with treason in the form of sabotage. The charge carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

A pretrial hearing in the case has been scheduled for November 3.