Former state minister accused of treason arrested in Georgia

The Tbilisi City Court has ordered the arrest as a measure of restraint for Giorgi Baramidze, the former Georgian state minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, who is accused of treason.

This was reported by the Interpressnews agency.
The decision was announced by Judge Eka Barbakadze. The defendant was present at the hearing.
Law enforcement officers detained Baramidze on September 11 in Tbilisi. As the Prosecutor General's Office reported, the former official is accused of treason with a clarifying article of the Criminal Code on sabotage, which implies imprisonment for up to four years.

Baramidze previously stated on a program hosted by opposition figure Iago Khvichia that during the conflict in Abkhazia in 1992-1993 the Georgian side could not bring its servicemen back from captivity, because it could not hand over Abkhaz servicemen to the Abkhaz side. According to Baramidze, the reason was that Georgia had no Abkhaz prisoners, since its servicemen shot them. Later, the Georgian prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against Baramidze under the articles on treason and sabotage.

The Parliament of Georgia returned the article on treason to the criminal code in the spring of 2025. A similar article had been in effect since 1991 and was abolished in 2007. In the new version, the norm combines 10 articles of the Criminal Code, including one on sabotage. Violation of one or several of these articles will also entail a charge of treason. A separate prison term for treason is not provided for. There have been no cases of conviction under this article since the law was adopted.