The detained journalist of the Asaval-Dasavali newspaper, Dito Chubinidze, has been officially charged under the statute on high treason. According to investigators, he sabotaged the work of the Commission on Delimitation and Demarcation of the State Border of Georgia. His defense attorney, Nona Pilauri, reported this to the publication Netgazeti.
According to her, the evidence in the case does not consist of any classified documents, but rather of the journalist’s public appearances and recorded interviews. Dito Chubinidze denies the charges and is stunned by the allegations.
“There is no one and nothing [classified] in his case. The substantive element of the alleged crime is that through his public appearances, he supposedly obstructed the work of the Commission on Delimitation and Demarcation of the State Border of Georgia. That is the wording of the indictment. His public statements have been admitted into evidence, and I assume members of this commission were questioned as witnesses. Judging by the indictment order, there is no other evidence in the case,” Pilauri told Netgazeti.
To the defense, the prosecution’s rationale remains completely baffling. According to the attorney, Chubinidze was merely carrying out his professional duty by interviewing respondents and airing their views.
“[Dito Chubinidze] does not understand at all why a journalist should be punished simply because an interviewee expresses certain views during a recording—after all, that person answers for their own words, do they not?! As a journalist, he was obligated to do this job. How did that harm the commission? As a lawyer, this also baffles me somewhat. The commission is backed by the state, which assists it in carrying out its work. How could Dito Chubinidze have disrupted it through his statements? He is not an expert, he is a journalist. By that logic, you would have to lock up all journalists under the rationale: ‘You recorded this interview because you are biased against someone.’ I consider such an approach by the prosecution to be obscure and baseless,” Pilauri stated.
At this stage, the case has not been classified. As the attorney clarified, the journalist neither stole nor forged any state documents, meaning the prosecution relies entirely on open-source material.
A court is expected to rule on pretrial preventive measures for journalist Dito Chubinidze tomorrow. Based on established practice, the lawyer anticipates the prosecutor’s office will seek remand in custody. The defense will be granted access to all case materials and interrogation transcripts prior to the court hearing, after which additional details will come to light.
