The Prosecutor’s Office has released a statement regarding the video recording of Mikheil Saakashvili spread in the media.

“With respect to the slanderous statements made by Mikheil Saakashvili’s lawyers regarding the video recordings disseminated on October 21, we would like to declare that within the scope of the criminal proceedings against Mikheil Saakashvili, E.Ts.’s and G.N.’s lawyers were provided with the case files, which the video recording circulating in the media and other numerous photo and video materials explicitly confirming the illegal crossing of the border by Mikheil Saakashvili and the participation of other persons involved in the case have been attach to.

Furthermore, we would like to stress that the investigation obtained the said video recording along with other ones at the initial stage and if the Prosecution Service of Georgia had deemed it necessary to make the recordings public as evidence, it would have done it on the very same day of the briefing, since there is no legal restraint on disseminating recordings of similar type.

We believe that the slanderous statements made today and distortion of the facts serve the purpose of discrediting the Prosecution Service and attempting to shift the blame.

We would like to add that recently lately, there has been a number of instances of making case files public in the very course of investigation, which indicates to an alarming tendency. In this regard, the Prosecution Service of Georgia is working on a legislative initiative based on the experience of European and other leading countries”, - reads the statement.