Man Admits Assaulting Kitsmarishvili for ‘Personal’ Reasons
A man, who has acknowledged twice “slapping in the face” of former Georgia’s envoy to Russia, Erosi Kitsmarishvili, said he had done so “to protect dignity” of his family.
On March 9 Erosi Kitsmarishvili released a written statement saying that he was beaten up “in front of hundreds of eyewitnesses and police” in the ski resort of Gudauri by “the family members” of senior Interior Ministry official Erekle Kodua.
“I believe that this incident is a provocation triggered by the authorities and represents a fact of political reprisal against a political opponent,” Kitsmarishvili, a former ally of President Saakashvili, turned into his opponent, said in the statement.
Zurab Zhorzholiani, a father of a former Rustavi 2 TV journalist Nanuka Zhorzholiani – she is wife of Kodua, said that the incident had nothing to do with politics and it had physically assaulted Kitsmarishvili because of the latter’s “insulting remarks” against her daughter.
“I met Kitsmarishvili by chance in Gudauri… I asked him to explain his remarks about my daughter, but I received a cynical and insulting answer from him,” Zurab Zhorzholiani said at a press conference on March 10. “If defending of your daughter’s dignity is a crime in this country, then I am ready to be held responsible for that.”
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Shota Khizanishvili, told Civil.Ge on March 9, that the investigation was ongoing into the case.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
