Interview with Gia Baramidze, minority member

New authorities promised people that it would soon be known what happened on February 3, 2005. The society is expected with great interest to learn who betrayed deceased Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. We asked to comment Giorgi Baramidze, Zhvania’s friend and team-member, who is named as one of the alleged participants of the assassination.
Q. – According to the spread information, the Prime Minister was killed on Shavnabada in front of the President and Interior Minister. Then the body was taken to Saburtalo in a TV-set box. Your name also figures in this case.
A. – How can anybody believe certain peoples’ gibberish that Zhvania was killed and then Baramidze carried him somewhere? Chief Prosecutor himself proved that all this was stuff and nonsense. I’m impatiently waiting for the investigation to end; afterwards we’ll be able to speak about many things.
Q. – In one of his publications in a newspaper, Chief Prosecutor Archil Kbilashvili didn’t confirm the version of Zhvania’s assassination, but he didn’t say either that his death was caused by an accident.
A. – Nobody from our authorities insisted either that Zhvania died because of an accident.
Q. – Really? Several hours after Zhvania’s death, Vano Merabishvili publicly declared that it was an accident. Saakashvili too said it more than once.
A. – If you ask me, such declarations were incorrect; the West frequently reproached us because of it.
Q. – In the flat where the deceased persons were found; Usufov’s one shoe was missing. First of all, death of expert Levan Samkharauli is suspicious and then -committing of a suicide by the assassin who used two weapons for it. Conclusion of FBI that the poisonous substance found in the body wasn’t fatal is ambiguous as well. Have you never asked President or Marabishvili these questions?
A. – For that reason I familiarized myself with the conclusions. I’ve never said that it was an accident but I had no substantial doubt either to accuse somebody. This doesn’t mean at all that I flatly rule out other versions. In Saburtalo I saw dead Zhvania; what happened before is known to the assassin. But the issues that raise suspicion, may not be connected with the version of assassination at all.
Q. – Can the version - that an influential person in Saakashvili’s government, Giorgi Baramidze, knows the truth about Zhvania’s death - be considered as valid?
A. – Why should I hide it? Why should I give anybody the right to kill my best friend?
Q. – If you didn’t take part in this case, your life could be under threat.
A. – Fear couldn’t be the reason for keeping mum and allowing somebody to kill my friend. At least I could run somewhere and declare that the Prime Minister was killed by his own team. I had never done anything against Zura. For certain I know only about my truth and I can’t take responsibility for the others. In the team there was an ideal situation and I can’t imagine who might wish Zura’s death. New authorities are investigating this case and everything will become clear as for what happened that night. After this, where can those people who are trying to blackwash Zura’s friends thus gaining political dividends hide from me?
Q. – After parliamentary elections political agenda has changed drastically. The defeat showed many people the dock from a close distance; many see it on a horizon… What will this defeat bring to Gia Baramidze?
A. – Losing of the elections was a relief to me. While our being in power such things happened, we made such mistakes that we shouldn’t have done, we distanced from reality…The ball is in the new authorities’ court and let them show us who is to be blamed, even in Zhvania’s death.
Q. – I’d like to ask you a question about the videos showing torture. What comments would you as a former Interior Minister make?
A. – How can I comment on this abomination? We couldn’t manage to control many scoundrels. Let everything be investigated and everybody who did it be punished. The new authorities are spreading the idea as if we want to cover somebody. Nobody can be arrested without evidence. Nobody is running anywhere; first you investigate and if a person is guilty then, punish him.
Q. – Do the facts indicate that it was a systemic crime?
A. – It was not a systemic crime. Some scoundrels who had technical devices for shadowing Russian agents thought – if I’m assigned for this job, why can’t I shoot politicians and then blackmail them? Isn’t it better to keep politicians on hook? If the minister assigned them to shoot those videos then he is to be detained and if the President too knew about it, then he also is to be arrested. Do you think I own anybody from the ‘National Movement’ something that would make me swallow this idiocy? Should I allow somebody to shoot what I’m doing with my wife in the bedroom?