Tbilisi City Court sentences three ex-officials for illegal surveillance

Today Tbilisi City Court sentenced three former officials from the former United National Movement (UNM) government for exceeding official powers and using computer systems for illegal benefit. 

The three former officials were ex-Deputy Interior Minister Shota Khizanishvili, ex-head of the Constitutional Security Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Levan Kardava, and ex-Deputy Head of the Constitutional Security Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vasil Leluashvili. 

Khizanishvili and Kardava were found guilty of exceeding of official power and were sentenced to one year and six months in prison. The pair were also deprived of taking state posts for two years following their release. 

Leluashvili was sent to prison for three years and was prohibited from taking a state position for two years after his release. He was found guilty of exceeding official powers and using computer systems for illegal surveillance. 

Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office reported in 2009 Leluashvili tasked staff in his department to create a computer program that could access any computer system and illegally recording people talking near the computers. 

The Office said this "virus-type program” was created in 2011 through which the Constitutional Security Department carried out illegal access to various computer systems and obtained personal information unlawfully. 

The Prosecutor’s Office also said on September 27, 2012 then-Deputy Head of Interior Ministry Khizanishvili exercised illegal psychological pressure on a bodyguard of then opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili. 

The bodyguard (B.Surmava) was forced to say he had been ordered by Ivanishvili to illegally recorded conversations of opposition Georgian Dream (GD) coalition members. The GD coalition was founded by Ivanishvili prior to the 2012 parliamentary race to defeat UNM. 

The Office's statement said at that time the Ministry of Internal Affairs was carrying out this illegal surveillance, not Ivanishvili. It was revealed Khizansihvili unlawfully spent €150.000 state money establishing and carrying out the illegal surveillance. 

On September 27-29 of 2014, staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs released the illegally obtained surveillance recordings on YouTube under the username B.Surmava. 

Meanwhile, speaking about Leluashvili the Prosecutor’s Office said prior to the 2012 Parliamentary Elections, he directed his staff to deliberately damage equipment and other property owned by Channel 9 - the TV station that was established by Ivanishvili. 

The property was placed at a custom’s terminal and the loss experienced by the media outlet as a result of the incident reached $346,000. 

The state prosecution questioned about 60 witnesses, studied eight volumes of documental evidence and conclusions of seven experts before charges were filed.