The news that Swedish telecom giant Ericsson provided the “black box” technology used by the Georgian government to spy on its own citizens did not appear to disturb the status quo Thursday (Oct. 31) at the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

French authorities arrested Davit Kezerashvili, former Defense Minister of the Republic of Georgia, in the southern city of Nice on Monday. A French court ordered the detention of Kezerashvili, whose extradition is sought by the Georgian government, according to the news website Civil Georgia.

Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs employee feeds a surveillance CD into the shredder.

By Elza Ketsbaia

After months of dithering over what to do with thousands of secret sex videos, Georgian officials on Sept. 5 fed 145 compact discs containing the illegal recordings of citizens’ sex lives into a high-powered shredder.

Some 100 people, most journalists, watched the destruction in a large auditorium at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.