2 former officials found guilty in high-profile ‘photographers case’

Two former officials who have been charged with abuse of authority regarding the high-profile "photographers case” have been found guilty.

The court announced its decision this afternoon, saying the two men are guilty of the abuse of authority, violence and violation of human dignity.

The "photographers case” is a case of four Georgian photographers who were unlawfully charged with espionage in 2011. The court ruled that the photographers had been accused of espionage by the previous Government because former leaders wanted revenge after the photographers distributed pictures of how the May 26, 2011 rally was violently broken up by riot police.

Today the court delivered guilty verdicts to two former officials: David Devnozashvili, ex-deputy head of the Tbilisi Territorial Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Counter-Intelligence Department and Aleksandre Mukhadze, former warden of Prison No. 8.

The judge ruled that these two former officials were guilty of forcing the detained photographers to admit to crimes they had not committed.

Devnozashvili was sentenced to four years and six months imprisonment while Mukhadze was sentenced to a year and six months.

• Details of the case can be found here.