Photographer case to re-open?
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Tuesday, October 28
The photographers’ case might change the status of top secret. The photographers, who were accused of espionage have asked the Prosecutor’s Office to reinvestigate the case in which, according to them, they were unfairly accused.
Natia Gedenidze had been questioned for five hours at the Prosecutor’s Office on October 26. Abdaladze and Kurtsikidze were also interrogated earlier this month. Irakli Gedenadze was also summoned to the prosecutor’s office as a witness.
“I gave a detailed testimony and I hope that the investigation will be carried out successfully,” said Gedenidze.
Abdaladze said that all they want is to make their case public. “We want our case to be opened and people to see what happened in reality. We know that we were illegally detained, but we need official recognition,” Abdaladze said.
The photo journalists were arrested on espionage charges on July 7, 2011.
President Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal photographer, Irakli Gedenidze, his wife Natia Gedenidze, and European Press photo Agency photojournalist Zurab Kurtsikidze and a freelance photographer for the Georgian Foreign Ministry, Giorgi Abdaladze, were found guilty and sentenced to conditional terms of 3 years and 6 months.
The case caused a large-scaled speculation and mass protest of journalists that resulted in the conditional sentence. Almost all NGOs and human rights’ defenders have stated that there were multiple question marks in the case.
