British experts confirm authenticity of "Imedi" director's telephone conversation

The audio record of the telephone conversation of Giorgi Arveladze, Director General of the "Imedi" TV Company, with his deputy Eka Tsamalashvili, which was disseminated two days after the scandalous report about invasion of Russian troops into Georgia, is authentical, British experts have stated.

Let us remind you that in the evening on March 15 a record of telephone conversation of the "Imedi" director general with certain Eka appeared in the Internet. A man with voice looking like Arveladze's one said that the idea of imitating an invasion of Russian troops had been coordinated with President of Georgia; and it was Mikhail Saakashvili who wanted not to warn the audience about the programme. Eka tried to remind the interlocutor about the code of ethics and the broadcasting law. She said that panic would burst out in Georgia if the report was put on air without warning.

Giorgi Arveladze called the recording "a fake made by Russia's special services." "It's a fabrication, a collection of phrases from my different conversations. Certainly, there was no such conversation, it's a compilation. With the same success they could have promulgated my conversation with the Dalai Lama or the Pope," he said then.

British experts were asked to examine the audio record by members of the "Alliance for Georgia", one of the leaders of which - David Gamkrelidze - signed a contract with the international organization GPW&Co Ltd., which made both the technical and linguistic analysis of the record.

The "Echo of the Caucasus" Radio reports that yesterday, on April 26, politicians made public the results of the examination, made by international experts.

Both experts assert that some places of the conversation could have been cut out, but there were no traces of additions or inserts.

According to their version, the fact some parts of the conversation had been deleted may be explained by the informal professional relations of the interlocutors and delicacy of the topic.

Their analysis of the technical side of the audio record has established that it was made in Tbilisi by the telephone company, where Ms Tsamalashvili is a client. Mr Gamkrelidze explained that the experts made this conclusion because her voice is heard better.

"Based on the fact that installation of some foreign-made tapping equipment at the central office of a Tbilisi-based telephone exchange, I hope, is practically impossible; but at the same time knowing that Georgia's special agencies are tapping and recording telephone conversations at a massive scale, we can assume with rather high probability that the conversation had been recorded by Georgian special services," he concluded.

In his turn, another leader of the "Alliance for Georgia" Republican David Usupashvili said, after confirmation of authenticity of the telephone conversation, that a whole range of crimes committed both by employees of the TV Company and President of Georgia were evident.

Mr Usupashvili also indicated to the facts of violation by President Mikhail Saakashvili of the Constitution of Georgia and raised - in this context - the issue of impeachment of the President.

Irakli Alasaniya, leader of the "Alliance for Georgia", has confirmed that the experts' conclusion will now allow investigating the case at the legal level.

At the same time Pavle Kublashvili, chairman of the legal committee of the parliament of Georgia, is sure that the parliament will never start considering the initiative of the "Alliance for Georgia".

"The fact that this record was made not just by foreign special services, but by special services of the FSB of Russia, and it appeared in the website of Russian special services, is enough for me to think that it is only in the interests of Russia to create a mess around this issue," said Mr Kublashvili and advised political parties not to act under Russian scenario and not to raise agio around this issue.

As to the statements of the members of the "Alliance for Georgia" about impeachment of the President, David Bakradze, speaker of the parliament, named them frivolous and noted that the country's leadership faces much more important problems.