Reihan Demitry
BBC South Caucasus Correspondent
Georgia National Security Services
Georgian authorities said Batiashvili was detained in the border area after tip-offs
The former confidant of Georgia’s most powerful man has alleged in a Tbilisi court that he forced his return to Georgia last Saturday, saying he was “invited from abroad.”
Once, Giorgi Baciashvili, 39, has accused the co-investment fund of billionaire Vidina Ivanishvili, the de facto ruler of Georgia, of relying on “bandits” and direct orders by Ivanishvili.
He told the Tbilisi Court that he was blindfolded for two days and then returned “in complete violation of the law” without access to his lawyers or family.
However, authorities say he was detained near a border intersection and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakitze should be happy that he was safe in Georgia.
Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream Party has been in power for 13 years, but the opposition parties consider the government and parliament “illegal” in October last year, citing widespread allegations of election fraud.
“Today I am a personal prisoner of Ivanishvili,” declared Baciashvili in court on Thursday. He is scheduled to return to court on June 9th.
Bachiashvili began running in early March. He fled Georgia midway through Georgia and later vehemently denied him in 11 years in his absence.
He was accused of diverting $42.7 million from Bitcoin’s investment deal.
He didn’t say where he was on Saturday’s accusations of accusations of acquiring him, but his best friend said on condition of anonymity that Batiashvili was in a hotel in Abu Dhabi when the three vehicles arrived, and he was seized.
“He’s handed over for nothing, no lawyer or trial,” a friend told the BBC.
Reuters
Bachiashvili appeared in court after being detained in mystical circumstances
The BBC approached the UAE authorities to respond to the allegations.
The businessman also claimed that he was forced to return to a Bombardier aircraft run by Air Zena, a former name for privately owned Georgian Airlines. In a statement, the airline said that anyone “cannot be able to enter or leave the airline’s international airport illegally.”
Whatever the circumstances surrounding his return to Georgia, the state security agency announced he was arrested Monday after an anonymous tip-off near the border of the red bridge at the intersection with Azerbaijan.
That crossing has been closed by Azerbaijan since the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
International lawyer Robert Amsterdam said this week that his client was at risk of “arbitrary detention, forced interrogation and abusive abuse.”
Ali Okanashvili, head of Georgia’s National Security Agency, added that Batiashvili had been found guilty of the crime and served his sentence and that a single hair had not fallen from his head, Interpresnese Agency reported.
The Prime Minister said it appears that the businessman believes his life is at risk. If so, he needs to be happy to be back “in Georgia, in a safe place… in the right conditions.”
Reuters
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakitze laughed at Baciashvili’s claim that he was accused of being accused of
The allegations coincided with the departure of another intimate aide of Georgia’s most powerful man.
Longtime Home Minister Vartan Gomelauri resigned on Wednesday without giving him any reason other than spending more time with his family.
Gomelauri has previously acted as a personal bodyguard for Bidzina Ivanishvili and has been placed under economic sanctions from the US, the UK and several EU countries due to his suspected role in the violent suppression of anti-government protests.
With an estimated wealth of $4.9 billion (£3.9 billion), Ivanishvili built his fortune in Russia in computing, metals and banking in the 1990s.
He founded a political party in Georgia in 2011 and won the election the following year.
Baciashvili told the Guardian that he served as Ivanishvili’s “right arm” for over a decade, managing the vast financial empire of oligarchs and as deputy chief executive of Georgia’s sovereign wealth fund.
He said he played a key role in recovering hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Ivanishvili by fraudulent credit Swiss advisors, and managed to lead a complex legal battle across multiple jurisdictions.
However, according to Batiashvili, their relationship became sour after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He added that Ivanishvili was operating like a “sultan and his servants” along with the prime minister, judges and prosecutors who made pilgrimage to a residence on the hilltop of the capital Tbilisi.
The Batiashshuvili case reflects the case of businessman Giorgi Chikweizze, who is another fallen Georgian dream ally. It was sentenced to nine years in prison for embezzlement after publicly opposed the ruling party and claimed he had evidence of government relations with the Russian Intelligence Report.
“Everyone will be accountable sooner or later,” Bachiashvili said at the dock on Thursday, pledging to reveal “all details” of what is called an international crime committed on direct orders by his former boss.
Additional reports by Paul Kirby and Nino Shonia.
