Former Prime Minister and former Georgian Dream party chair Irakli Garibashvili, who is currently imprisoned, has issued his third letter this week, claiming that he was blackmailed into admitting to new corruption charges in an effort to eliminate “even a 1% chance” of his returning to politics.
Even after three letters, it remains unclear what prompted the team, a particular group within it, or Ivanishvili himself to seek assurances that Garibashvili would leave politics for good. The only explanation he offers is that he was targeted because of “false perceptions, imagined scenarios, envy, fears and suspicions created by a particular group within the team.”
In his latest letter, Garibashvili said the alleged pressure included, for the second time, an “insinuation that my seventy-five-year-old father could be arrested.”
Garibashvili again repeated what he had said in his previous letters, stressing that he had remained silent for a long time and agreed to take “all this terrible pain and tragedy” into his heart and “bear it all patiently and in silence” because of his “boundless gratitude and absolute loyalty” to Bidzina Ivanishvili. He repeatedly emphasised that he had never acted against Ivanishvili and remained loyal to him, while also insisting that he is not fighting anyone even now and is “merely defending” himself and his family.
The letter, which is filled with literary and metaphorical references, ends with a quotation from one of Georgia’s most renowned writers, Vazha-Pshavela, which Garibashvili uses to stress that he will not make a deal with the “enemies” and will remain loyal to Ivanishvili. He also warns the experts and government spokespeople speaking against him that they may soon be ashamed of their own statements once they come to understand “my side of the story.”
Garibashvili again named Georgian Dream parliamentary leader Mamuka Mdinaradze, saying that the letter containing the alleged demand to admit to the new corruption charges was delivered to his family by a person acting on Mdinaradze’s behalf.
Letter:
“I have heard the comments made by representatives of the authorities, as well as the false and defamatory statements made by their experts. I watch the unbridled propaganda filling television and social media. All of this was, of course, expected, and I understand their objective perfectly well. But I want to tell you: you are struggling in vain. This letter was delivered by Mdinaradze, through a close friend of his, to a member of my family. That person found himself caught up in this mess purely by chance, which is why I am deliberately withholding his name and surname.
As for Mdinaradze, if he does not wish to harm innocent people, he should stop spreading lies and take full responsibility. I want to remind the public once again that I have now been sitting silently in prison for eight months. Not a single word of mine has been heard publicly. I have taken not one step either to the right or to the left.
Now I address the authorities: From the very beginning, you set up a dirty provocation against me, laid an underhanded trap for me. I took you at your word; I followed you sincerely, with blind and wholehearted trust. But you deceived me and cast me aside. You sacrificed me. You burst into my home as though I were a robber and a criminal, terrorised my family, my wife and my children; you stormed into the homes of my mother and father, my father-in-law and mother-in-law…
I took all this terrible pain and tragedy into my heart and bore it all patiently and in silence, because of my twenty-year relationship with Bidzina Ivanishvili, because of the immense love, respect, boundless gratitude and absolute loyalty I have for him… And also because of the interests of my political family, my team and our country, I took this entire burden upon myself without a word and walked on my own feet to the merciless sacrificial altar you had prepared for me.
As a result, you sent me to prison for five years, because of false perceptions, imagined scenarios, envy, fears and suspicions created by a particular group within the team. You condemned me to prison and sacrificed me for absolutely no reason. And now you do not even leave me in peace in prison. You have come after me with this letter, demanding that I admit to a corruption charge in order to insure even the one-percent risk you have identified — to ensure that I leave politics forever.
All of this was accompanied by immoral blackmail and pressure — including, for the second time, an insinuation that my seventy-five-year-old father could be arrested. You touched such deep layers of my heart and soul that, quite literally, you made me explode and left me no other choice… I am fighting no one; I am only defending myself and my family. Therefore, I will be forced to respond in kind to every step you take against me.
As for the disgraceful and defamatory campaign you have organised on social media and television, and the false opinions and narratives being put forward by your experts and spokespeople, I will tell you only this: be careful — soon you will be ashamed of your own statements, once you come to understand the truth of my side of the story.
You all know me well. I am still the same Irakli Garibashvili I have always been. I still have the same pure heart, and the same loyalty with which I served our homeland, all of you, and the entire team. You are struggling in vain and to no avail to portray me as a traitor to the country, to the team, and to Bidzina Ivanishvili. I will not ‘make peace with the wicked’… I have never acted against my country, and I never will. So stop and be silent!
And finally, I want to state once again, clearly: I am fighting no one, nor am I fighting against anyone; I am only defending myself and my family.”