The Daily Beat: 10 January
Tbilisi City Court found four persons guilty of honor crime against Khanum Jeiranova, an ethnic Azeri woman and sentenced them to prison terms. Jeiranova committed suicide in 2014, shortly after enduring public humiliation and physical violence in her community for alleged “misbehavior,” considered “inappropriate for women.” The Prosecutor’s Office filed charges in 2022 — eight years after the incident — after the CEDAW committee, an independent U.N. treaty body — pointed to the failure of the Georgian authorities to investigate and punish those responsible.
Georgian Defense Ministry pushed back against criticism for not handing back the air-defense systems it got from Ukraine in 2007, by saying those were bought, not donated. This came after the Ukrainian diplomat disclosed that Kyiv’s request to assist with air defense and anti-tank weapons was refused by Tbilisi. Giga Bokeria who chaired the National Security Council in 2007, retorted Ukraine’s assistance was vital for Georgia’s facing the Russian aggression in 2008. He said the refusal to hand back the systems also went against national interest, as they would have been substituted with the better, Western-made kit. The MOD stressed the purely humanitarian character of Georgia’s assistance to Ukraine.
General Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. ground forces in Europe, said Georgia’s position on Ukraine was “hard to comprehend,” adding that declaring open support to Kyiv would not have carried additional risks. Gen. Hodges’ statement was lambasted by the ruling party representatives and affiliated media, who questioned his credibility, good faith, and military professionalism.
The Ministry of Health established the minimum hourly pay for doctors and nurses servicing the government’s mandatory insurance schemes at hospitals. The decision will affect nearly 9000 doctors and more than 8000 nurses, setting the minimum monthly wage for doctors at GEL 1,260 and for nurses at GEL 792. The Fair Labor Platform, a local labor rights watchdog, welcomed the decision to establish minimum pay but said it fell short of providing the minimum living wage. The watchdog also added that the measure fails to address “systemic shortfalls.“
Fact of the Day
Seventeen: these are the ads PM Irakli Garibashvili’s sponsored on Facebook in 2022 for congratulating Orthodox Christian Georgians on religious holidays.
Zero: this is how many times he did the same to reach other religious confessions.
