Georgia 'gay sex tape blackmail' exposed
2013-01-15 20:48
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Tbilisi - Georgian prosecutors on Tuesday accused top
former defence ministry officials of organising the secret filming of gay sex
videos allegedly involving high-ranking figures to blackmail them into co-operating
with the security services.
Three unnamed defence ministry officials were arrested
and released on bail, in the latest investigation into alleged wrongdoing under
the former government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Prosecutors have opened a swathe of probes into
ex-Saakashvili loyalists after his government was ousted following the victory
of Georgia's new prime minister, the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, in
October parliamentary elections.
The prosecutor's office accused the former government
officials of making dozens of secret video recordings of "publicly
well-known" men having gay sex and using those videotapes to blackmail
them.
"With this, we wanted to show that the method of
state government was systemically outside of the legal framework and outside of
the values that the society should be based on," Georgia's chief
prosecutor Archil Kbilashvili told reporters.
The men filmed in the videos were not identified.
The prosecutor's office said the scheme was created by
the former head of military police department of the defence ministry, Megis
Kardava.
Kardava considered a close ally of the ex-defence
minister and Saakashvili loyalist Bacho Akhalaia, is believed to have fled the
country after the 1 October elections.
Intimidation
The videotapes were later used for intimidating victims
and forcing them into co-operation with special agencies and "voicing
their support for the political regime", the prosecutors said.
The prosecutors have found several such videos but say
there are at least a dozen in existence. Several local media outlets have now
published the videos.
Gay rights organisations were quick to express their deep
concern over publicising the videos, saying that this was a serious breach of
privacy on the part of the prosecutor's office.
"Despite promises of systemic change, it is clear
that the condition of rights and dignity of lesbian and homosexual people has
not changed at all," gay rights group Identity said in a statement.
Homosexuality is still highly stigmatised in Georgia, a
deeply socially conservative ex-Soviet state in the Caucasus whose Orthodox
church retains a huge influence.
'Dirty methods'
Two days prior to the release of the videos, Saakashvili
appeared to launch a pre-emptive riposte by accusing Ivanishvili's government of
using "dirty methods" to pressure local officials and judges.
Saakashvili alleged two such recent cases in which, he
said, security services tried to pressure a local official and a judge.
In one case, a district police chief was threatened that
secret agents would reveal to his son that he had been adopted, he said. In
another, one of the female judges was filmed having sex with her boyfriend and
was later blackmailed into co-operating with security services.
But Saakashvili, who is currently working in a strained
"cohabitation" with Ivanishvili, also denied his government ever used
such methods.
"Of course we had special services which were
carrying out operations against foreign agents, but there was a very strict
condition - never to touch in any way a private life of a person.
"There has never been a case of releasing
compromising materials of private life," said Saakashvili.
