Hereby, we respond to the statements made by the Prime Minister and Interior Minister of Georgia on the possible maintenance of video archive, disclosing the details of private life and its use as essential evidence for investigation.

We would like to remind the Government of Georgia of the numerous promises made by its representatives, the Interior Minister in particular, that unlawfully recorded video and audio materials, disclosing the details of citizens' private life, would be destroyed in the near future. The Interior Minister had mentioned this for the first time at the April 29 conference, Civil Control for Prevention of Illegal Wire-Tapping, which was confirmed on May 20 by the Deputy Interior Minister, Levan Izoria, at the joint session of the Committees for Human Rights and Legal Affairs. Furthermore, just a few days ago, on May 29 Irakli Gharibashvili had promised to destroy the video archive during his visit to Brussels.

A reason behind the Government's changed decision and failure to adhere to the undertaken obligation remains unclear, especially after creating expectations both locally and internationally. Moreover, the maintenance of such materials not only violates the effective legislation of Georgia along with international principles, but  also infringes upon fundamental human rights.

We believe that the preservation of such materials in the Government's hands may serve the desire to use them for political purposes. Obviously, suspicions arise that unlawfully recorded materials, disclosing the details of private life, may be abused by special services for blackmailing the citizens and pressuring the political opponents during the pre-election period.

Unfortunately, despite copious amounts of statements, the Government of Georgia has not resorted to efficient steps in terms of destroying the private life recordings. To the contrary, the process was protracted in time, thus clearly affecting the degree of public trust.

We urge the Government of Georgia to undertake the following: initiate efficient measures for destroying the discreditable video archive of private life recordings; thoroughly observe the requirements of Georgian legislation; and plan the preventive measures, which includes effective investigation for deterring the abuse by third persons of unlawfully recorded video materials in the future.