Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

Georgia's Deputy Interior Minister Gela Khvedelidze has been arrested in connection with the release of a scandalous video that was leaked in early May, reflecting the privacy of defender Giorgi Paresashvili.

Interior Minister Irakli Garibashvili stated that the video was shot by the previous government, the Department of Constitutional Security, to blackmail Paresashvili to make him work for it.

"My former deputy has been arrested. This is my clear message to all the officials at any level and to all the citizens regardless of their political views," Garibashvili was quoted by civil.ge website as saying.

"I do not want to be an interior minister who covers up his own family members, friends and relatives... Those times are gone in Georgia and I am sure that those times will never be back again... I want to tell each and every Georgian citizen, my colleagues and co-workers that I am and will be their defender, but no one should ever be able to get away with committing a crime. That's exactly the way for Georgia to return to the European family; all the other ways represent demagogy and populism," Garibashvili said.

Garibashvili said Khvedelidze painfully deemed a completely unfounded and defamatory statement released in the media against him and decided to take revenge, considering that thus he would be able to stop the smear campaign against him.

The minister promised that the defaming archive video footage would be immediately destroyed.