Oppositional paper closed in Georgia

After a search of the son of Malkhaz Gulashvili, owner of the oppositional newspaper Georgian Times, published in the Georgian language, which was treated by the publisher as "psychological terror" by Georgian authorities, the edition was stopped.

Malkhaz Gulashvili has informed journalists that in the evening on March 13, when he was in Vienna at the summit of the opposition, his son's car was stopped in the centre of Tbilisi and searched by the criminal police. "This is a true psychological terror," he said.

"The Viennese conference caused ambiguous reaction in Georgia. The authorities have unleashed an impetuous discredit of the event, its participants and the Georgian Diaspora present there," Mr Gulashvili says in his statement placed in the Russian-language version of the Georgian Times' website.

"My homeland starts with my family, and my family's safety is my main duty. After 17 years of non-stop operation I've made an unprecedented decision to suspend publication of the Georgian-language version of the Georgian Times," said the publisher.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia knows nothing about the search of the car. "We know nothing about the search, and we are ready to listen to Gulashvili. We state that there's no political pressure on him," the Reuters quotes Shota Utiashvili, head of the MIA's Analytical Division, as saying.

The English-language version of the Georgian Times, which, unlike the Georgian-language counterpart, occupies an absolutely different niche and functions as a sort of a bridge between abroad and Georgia; as well as the trilingual version www.geotimes.ge will continue working with doubled load, as Mr Gulashvili has assured.