FBI expert in Georgia to investigate leak of private videos

An expert from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrived in Georgia to work with a special group investigating the leak of several private and intimate videos.

The FBI expert will remain in Georgia for some period to provide active consultations regarding the leak of the illegally obtained videos, said the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia today.

Several videos were released online on March 11, 14 and 31 which showed subjects in intimate situations in their private life. The release of the videos was highly condemned by officials and the public. 

Today the Office held a special briefing to inform the public about the state of the investigation.

The Office said Georgia’s law enforcement bodies had carried out more than 200 investigative and procedural actions to identify all the offenders (those responsible for creating the tapes and those who had leaked the videos online), and the FBI expert was in the country to assist the investigation. 

The Office said in addition to the expertise and legal assistance requested, Georgia had asked its American counterparts to assign a highly qualified expert that would offer assistance to Georgia during the investigation process. 

The United States (US) authorities immediately expressed their readiness to provide assistance and guidance. Consequently, a representative of the FBI arrived in Georgia and has been consulting the special investigation team of the Prosecutor’s Office for the past several days,” said the Office in its statement.

Notably the Prosecutor’s Office has been actively cooperating with the competent US authorities remotely, as per the emerging needs of the investigation,” the Office added. 

Georgia's Chief Prosecutor's Office briefed the public about the ongoing investigation. Photo by Georgia's Chief Prosecutor's Office. 

To identify those responsible for filming and releasing the footage online, the investigation team had: 

• Searched 25 apartments in Tbilisi. This resulted in authorities seizing 166 CDs and DVDs containing information, 26 personal computers, 37 cellphones, 86 SIM cards, 53 memory cards and five external hard drives; 
• Forty-one items seized have been inspected by experts; 59 items seized were submitted for a forensics examination;
• CCTV camera recordings have been requested from the buildings and places of interest;
• Fifty individuals have been interviewed as potential witnesses; 
• Sixteen Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) requests have been submitted to authorities of foreign states to obtain information for the investigation. Georgian authorities are actively cooperating with their foreign counterparts to ensure effective and prompt execution of MLA requests. 

The ongoing investigation is being conducted about encroachment of information related to a person’s private life. The Prosecutor’s Office said it would continually update the public about the pace of the investigation and thanked the US Embassy and FBI for their "continued support and guidance in the investigation process”.

A brief history of surveillance violations in Georgia

• Hundreds of videos reflecting the private life of Georgian citizens were illegally taped and stored by the United National Movement (UNM) government to blackmail people. 
• The majority of videos were publicly destroyed by the current Government in 2013 after the Georgian Dream coalition defeated UNM in 2012. Only a small number of videos that were not related to a person’s private life were saved to help any future investigations.
• However since 2014 several videos of a sexual nature have been leaked on the internet; the latest occurring on March 11, 14 and 31 of this year.
• One video released on YouTube on March 11 allegedly showing an opposition party leader caused a stir in Georgia and generated significant public backlash.
• About 135 people watched the footage before law enforcers contacted YouTube administration and blocked the video.
• On March 14 another video similar in content appeared on Youtube but it was immediately blocked. 
• On March 15 the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia charged five people for keeping this type of illegal videos but the agency did not specify whether these people were responsible for the leak of the two videos.
• Other videos showing a person’s private life were sent to several journalists yesterday but these videos were immediately blocked to the public. 

The Georgian Government said the leak of the videos was an "attack on the Government” and many majority members blamed the former authorities for the leak. However opposition UNM and Free Democrats said the current Government stood behind the illegality.