02.02.2024, Tbilisi.
Pro-Western activist Nata Peradze received five days of administrative arrest for desecrating the icon of Matrona of Moscow with the image of Joseph Stalin in the Trinity Cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) by the decision of the Tbilisi City Court on February 2. IPN news agency wrote.
Lawyers defending the convict said that she was found guilty under Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Georgia, which provides for petty hooliganism.
On January 9, Peradze posted a video of an icon of Matrona of Moscow smeared with green paint on social media. This caused outrage in the Orthodox environment. A crowd of disgruntled people gathered outside her house the next day, demanding punishment. The protesters were prevented from entering the house by the police.
Church workers cleaned the icon (it was under glass), put in a more prominent place in the temple, and the clergymen held a service in front of it. Amid the scandal, the representatives of the GOC decided to rewrite the icon, removing the episode with Stalin, as there is no historical evidence confirming his meeting with the saint.
The MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party noted that there is no law protecting religious shrines in the country. He promised that the party would introduce a provision in the legislation to penalize attacks on shrines.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
