PM Garibashvili: ex-President Saakashvili is behind ‘dirty provocation’ of audio tapes
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili (L) says that the third President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili is trying to hamper the negotiation process between the ruling party and the opposition.
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Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that the country’s third President Mikheil Saakashvili is behind the ‘dirty provocation of a fake audio recording’ which allegedly features a wiretap of a conversation between him (Garibashvili) and the son of the founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili.
The audio recording recently released by the opposition-minded TV Pirveli channel focuses on an alleged intimidation campaign to ‘humiliate and punish’ minors for online posts insulting the Ivanishvili family.
The recording is a fabrication of the conversation which was made 11 years ago, under the United National Movement government which confirms once again that we all were the victims of total control and illegal surveillance,” Garibashvili stated earlier today.
He said that ‘of course, Saakashvili stands behind the provocation’ to hamper making an agreement between the ruling party and the opposition amid the current political tension.
On March 6, TV Pirveli aired audio conversations in which the son of the Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, Bera Ivanishvili, allegedly tasking Anzor Chubinidze, who currently serves as the Head of the Special State Protection Service since 2014, to humiliate and punish minors for online posts insulting the Ivanishvili family.
Garibashvili said that everyone, including the opposition, ‘must distance themselves from the dirty provocation and condemn it.’
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- Civil society, opposition urge to investigate alleged crime after TV Pirveli airs covert audio tapes involving Georgian PM
He has dismissed the reports by TV Pirveli that the government had plans to forcibly enter the channel and confiscate the tapes.
Tbilisi City Court has allowed the Prosecutor’s Office to confiscate the audio tapes.
However, the Prosecutor’s Office said that they had no plans to do this forcibly.
Tbilisi City Court has granted the Prosecutor’s Office’s request for the seizure of audio tapes which allegedly feature a wiretap of a conversation between current PM Irakli Garibashvili, former head of the Georgian Dream party’s son Bera Ivanishvili and other high-ranking officials.
Six opposition activists have been detained at the headquarters of the Georgian Dream ruling party earlier today for disobedience to police.
The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has launched an investigation into the alleged wiretap of a conversation between Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, the son of the Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, Bera Ivanishvili, and Anzor Chubinidze, who serves as the Head of the Special State Protection Service.
The ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party has released a statement regarding the alleged wiretap of a conversation between PM Garibashvili and other high-profile individuals, which reads that the ‘fabrication of the recordings seems to be a careful and long work, saved for the right moment'.
The US Embassy to Georgia has reported that they are ‘watching closely’ the developments around channel TV Pirveli which has recently released a audio recording allegedly featuring a wiretap of a conversation between Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili and the son of the founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili.
The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office says that a wiretap of conversation between current PM Irakli Garibashvili, son of the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili, Bera Ivanishvili and the head of Special State Protection Service Anzor Chubinidze, which was released by TV Pirveli in March 2021, is fake.
Georgian Patrol Inspector Gela Kvashilava won a civil dispute against the opposition-minded TV Pirveli over spreading false information in Tbilisi Court of Appeals on Thursday.
The Court of Appeals upheld the November 19 decision made by Tbilisi City Court, which obliged TV Pirveli to pay compensation for moral damage to Kvashilava after the television channel accused him of drug trafficking.