Prosecutors in Georgia are accusing top former defence ministry officials of filming gay sex videos of high-ranking figures in order to blackmail them.
On Tuesday (15 January), three officials were arrested as part of the latest investigation into alleged wrongdoing under the former government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
The inquest was opened after the videos were released to the public, and several local media organizations chose to publish them.
Georgia's chief prosecutor Archil Kbilashvili told reporters: 'With this, we wanted to show that the method of state government was systemically outside of the legal framework and outside of the values that the society should be based on.'
According to Kbilashvili, the film was used for intimidating victims and forcing them into 'voicing their support for the political regime.'
The men in the videos were not identified, but it has not stopped gossip on social networking sites and internet forums.
Prosecutors are accusing Megis Kardava, the former of head of military police department, who allegedly first proposed the scheme.
Kardava is believed to have fled the country shortly after the 1 October 2012 elections, when billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili triumphed over Saakashvili.
Gay rights organizations have expressed their deep concern over publicizing the videos, saying it was a serious breach of privacy on the part of the prosecutor's office.
'Despite promises of systematic change, it is clear that the condition of rights and dignity of lesbian and homosexual people has not changed at all,' gay rights group Identity said.
Saakashvili, who has been working in a strained coalition with Ivanishvili since his defeat, has denied the claims.
'Of course we had special services which were carrying out operations against foreign agents, but there was a very strict condition – never to touch in any way a private life of a person,' he said.
A month before Saakashvili lost the election, a video taken inside a Tbilisi prison showed inmates being beaten and sodomized was released to the public.
It caused controversy worldwide, and the United Nations Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement condemning the video.
Khatuna Kalmakhelidze, Georgian Minister of Correction, Probation and Legal Assistance, was forced to resign over the scandal.
While homosexuality is legal, it is still highly stigmatized in the conservative former Soviet state.
In a recent poll, 91.5% of Georgians said they find homosexuality to be 'completely unacceptable'.
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