Police of Georgia: law enforcement bodies do not pursue Gulashvili family

Shota Utiashvili, head of the information-analytical service of the MIA of Georgia, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the family of Malkhaz Gulashvili, founder of the radical "National Orthodox Movement" and the media holding "Georgian Times", was not persecuted by the police.

"Statements about persecution of Gulashvili are made not for the first time, and we already made a check once, but the fact was not confirmed," Mr Utiashvili explained.

According to his story, "there is no case against Gulashvili, except for the one initiated after the incident at the "Kavkasiya" television.

On May 10, Malkhaz Gulashvili, a figurant of the criminal case about the pogrom in the "Kavkasiya" TV Company, disappeared from law enforcement bodies in South Ossetia. Today he said that he is considering an opportunity to appeal to the President of the Russian Federation for defence from prosecution by Georgian authorities. According to Gulashvili, Georgian authorities tried to exert political pressure on him, and also tried to kidnap his son.

"The fact that he had crossed the administrative border and is in Samochablo does not assume any criminal prosecution either. Georgia does not recognize the independence of South Ossetia and views Samochablo as Georgian territory. That is, from the legal viewpoint, he just moved from one region of Georgia to another," Mr Utiashvili has added.

Let us remind you that Malkhaz Gulashvili was to come for interrogation to the Prosecutor's Office in the context of the incident. However, he secretly left the territory of Georgia. Today he accused the journalists of the TV channel themselves of the incident saying that "this TV Company has transformed into a branch of the MIA of Georgia."