Opposition women MPs express solidarity with all women who have been victims of sexual harassment or other types of rights violations.

Ana Natsvlishvili, Teona Akubardia, Khatia Dekanoidze, Ana Buchukuri, Khatuna Samnidze, Ani Tsitlidze, Salome Samadashvili, Tamar Kordzaia signed the statement.

The MPs demand from the investigative agencies to investigate and give a legal assessment of the persecution against Tatia Samkharadze.

"We strongly condemn the ongoing attack by violent and propaganda machines against Tatia Samkharadze, who with her struggle and courage was able to break the taboo - she created the first precedent of establishing the fact of sexual harassment and legal response to it in Georgia.

We strongly condemn the statements made by the leaders of the ruling team about these and other alleged harassment facts, which 4 more women have spoken about in recent days. They also publicly exposed Shalva Ramishvili, who has already been exposed in the case of Tatia Samkharadze for harassment by the courts of two instances.

In recent days, the authorities have gone beyond the phase of silence that we have seen in other cases and are openly supporting the harassers, telling all victims of violence and discrimination to keep silent, encouraging the perpetrators. It is especially unacceptable for us that government representatives used the parliamentary tribune to spread this message. Also, the position of the Chairperson of the Parliament's Gender Equality Council, who has a special responsibility to promote not only the legal framework for the protection of women's rights, but also the creation of an appropriate environment for the implementation of laws in practice, is unacceptable.

In the past days, we have seen the most dangerous and vicious practice of using state institutions to persecute victims and reproduce false narratives in order to protect the reputation of the abuser and punish the victim. It is unacceptable when, on the grounds of protecting rights and law and order, with the involvement of state agencies, they invade people's living space. The mentioned incident deepens the suspicion about the use of illegal surveillance and monitoring practices and misuse of the state machine to protect party interests. The fact that a person exposed by a court of harassment publicly threatens to disclose information about the whistleblower's private life shows a sense of impunity, which reveals the complete incompetence of the state and the law.

We demand from the investigative agencies to investigate and give a legal assessment of the persecution operation against Tatia Samkharadze; They should also investigate and give a legal assessment to the accusations made by other women about the harassment by Shalva Ramishvili, including the secret recording aired by Formula TV.

Also, we call on the Public Defender of Georgia to express his public position regarding the current events; At the same time, we call on him to implement the legal response stipulated by the law and his mandate - to protect the rights of Tatia Samkharadze, because there is a continuous violation of the legislation prohibiting discrimination. In particular, Tatia Samkharadze is being persecuted for exposing the fact of sexual harassment by her and winning the dispute in the court," says the joint statement of the deputies, which is disseminated by Lelo.

source: IPN