Justice Minister accuses ex-Pres. Margvelashvili of “spreading lies insulting” to penitentiary staff

Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Thursday responded to a recent public statement by former President Giorgi Margvelashvili, who had claimed convicted individuals were “killed by torture” in detention in the country, by calling the comments a “lie” and a “baseless manipulative accusation” insulting to penitentiary staff.

In his response, Bregadze said Margvelashvili “should act in accordance with the national interests” and accused the latter of joining efforts of the domestic “radical opposition” over the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

By slandering the Government and civil servants of his own country, the former President appeared to the public as an associate member of the radical opposition, [which is] obsessed with returning [to] power [and] strives to damage the country's domestic and foreign image by all possible means”, the Government official said.

“[Margvelashvili], as a former President, should also consider that by spreading lies about torture, he insults thousands of honourable employees of the penitentiary system, which is completely unacceptable”, Bregadze continued.

The Minister called the actions by the former official a “hallmark of Soviet propagandists”, adding it was “unfortunate” that the former President had “wittingly or unwittingly sided with a group of disguised Red Army members” that “have nothing to do with true Western values”.

The comments come ahead of the next hearing in a trial in Tbilisi City Court on whether Saakashvili will be granted release or postponement of the rest of his sentence on medical grounds, an outcome his legal team and some of the opposition figures have repeatedly called for.

Government officials have claimed the former official is engaged in “self-harm” in order to escape justice by worsening his health condition, and said Saakashvili and the opposition United National Movement party have engaged with their “partners” and “paid foreign lobbyists” in releasing “fake information” over the condition of the former President’s health in custody. 

Saakashvili has been receiving treatment at the Tbilisi-based Vivamedi clinic since May 12, after his transfer to the facility from a prison hospital. 

The former President was arrested on his clandestine return to the country in 2021 and is serving a six-year term for abuse of power in two separate cases stemming back to his time in office between 2003-2012, while three other cases are pending.