Author: Georgi Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi, exclusive to VK
Immediately after the victory of the coalition "Georgian Dream" led by Bidzina Ivanishvili in the parliamentary election many observers assumed that the new government would have to start with the arrests of its predecessors. There could not be any other opportunities, because the post-Soviet mentality, which is still inherent to Georgia, does not just assume but requires this: any new government must prove its legitimacy by decisive actions to defeat the former ruling team.
The main resource which provided the victory of the "Dream" in the elections on October 1 was not the middle class which only slightly adjusts its likes and dislikes in relation to different factions of the same elites in the electoral cycle in developed democratic countries, but "protest electorate”, always hungry for real punishment for those whom it defeated at the ballot box. If the authority is unable to punish them, thus it proves to be "useless" and causes great disappointment to a large and very passionate part of society. "Restoring justice" was the main election slogan of Ivanishvili. How can "justice" be restored without the arrest of those who trod the same justice? Therefore, a series of arrests did not become a surprise for anyone, including, perhaps, the arrested people themselves.
For example, a former interior minister, a former defense minister and former head of the Department of Corrections, Bachana (Bacho) Akhalaia must have known that he would be arrested. However, for some unknown reason he returned home from Turkey where he went a few days after the election. His brother, a former head of the Department of Constitutional Security of the Interior Ministry Data Akhalaia has not followed the example of Bacho and is still hiding in one of the European countries. Bachana Akhalaia was charged under Article 333 of the Criminal Code of "exceeding official authority" for the beating of five soldiers on contract in 2010. With the same charges the prosecutors arrested the acting Chief of Staff Georgi Kalandadze. Nevertheless, General Kalandadze was released on bail of 20 thousand lari (12 thousand dollars.). Many people wondered: why did the prosecution not find more serious charges against Akhalaia who was declared "the monster of the Saakashvili regime" from the suppression of the prison riot in 2006? But the country's chief prosecutor Archil Kbilashvili (former lawyer of the premier Ivanishvili) soon made it clear that the allegations in the episode of beating soldiers were just the beginning. Soon Akhalaia was charged under much more severe Article 144 of the Criminal Code – "tortures". As in the first episode, the prosecution has "concrete evidence" that by order of the Minister of Defense, 19 soldiers were locked in a cold bath for “disobedience” and kept there for almost two days without food or water.
After the arrest of ex-minister of defense the turn came to high-ranking officials of the Interior Ministry. The Prosecutor's Office arrested 12 officials of the Department of Constitutional Security (led by Data Akhalaia), including deputy director Levan Kardava and head of Tbilisi branch of the Department Georgi Kavlashvili. They are charged with "illegal obtaining information about the personal lives of citizens and businesses."
This story acquires a number of interesting and even funny details. For example, it is known that the Georgian special services have invented a special program-bat, which not only penetrated the computers of opposition leaders, but was able to keep them under surveillance, including recording audio and video in their apartment and in other areas where those turned on their personal computer or laptop. Thus, shortly before the parliamentary elections the Georgian Interior Ministry received compromising information on nearly all politicians from Ivanishvili’s circle and published through Youtube their critical and sometimes insulting remarks about the leader of the coalition. However, it did not help the previous government, because Ivanishvili had "concrete compromising information" on tortures in Gldani prison. In fact, many leaders of the pro-presidential party United National Movement (UNM) and personally Mikhail Saakashvili have repeatedly said that "torture videos are made by prison staff and ordered by Ivanishvili."
The next in the series of those arrested was the former head of the administration of MIA Shota Khizanishvili. During the arrest, he was the Vice-Mayor of Tbilisi. The prosecutors accuse Khizanishvili of leading the operation "Mole". In particular, according to the investigation, Khizanishvili and his team managed to recruit personal security guard of Ivanishvili Besik Surmava. They used the video of Surmava’s adultery in a hotel and forced him to take responsibility for placing the aforementioned audios on Youtube. Listening and surveillance are possible only with a court order, so it was important for the security services to put on the same resource the message from Surmava that all the records had been made by him by the order of Ivanishvili who in this way wanted to check the loyalty of his teammates in the "Georgian Dream" .
In this rather confusing and dark story there is one clear line. Prosecutors gradually but surely gets to the ultimate goal: the closest ally of President Saakashvili – Vano Merabishvili, Minister of the Interior from 2004 to 2012. Merabishvili now heads the pro-presidential party. He clearly hopes that whatever evidence against him would be given by the arrested officials of the Interior Ministry, the authorities would not dare to arrest the leader of the opposition party, fearing the strong reaction of the West. Indeed, after the arrest of Bachana Akhalaia NATO Secretary General in a rather unusual way for diplomacy expressed outrage concerning "politically motivated arrests" in Georgia.
However, this situation is unlikely to stop the prosecution for the same reason that promoted the whole process of arrests: "people would not understand", if all the growing process stops before the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, compared to whom Kardava and Khizanishvili do not look guilty.
But there is a different kind of obstacle: the chief prosecutor Kbilashvili is a very respected lawyer in the country. Of course, he does not expect stay forever in the prosecutor's office and would like to return to the practice of law in a few years. So he cherishes his reputation and always looks for "steel proof" of guilt of people under investigation. For example, arresting the Chief of Staff and former Secretary of Defense for "hazing" Kbilashvili initially caused bewilderment of anyone familiar with the customs of the armies of the world, including the most democratic countries, where for the offense generals may be demoted, kicked out of the army without epaulettes, but not go to jail. But the evidence for violation of Article 333 of the Criminal Code of Georgia was indeed "concrete”. In order to get an invincible evidence linking Merabishvili to stories of illegal surveillance the prosecutors need the testimony of Data Akhalaia who is in hiding. Otherwise, the investigation will not reach Vano Merabishvili on this episode, though, according to VK, there are many other cases that are just beginning to spin up and lead to the same goal, that is, to a narrow circle of closest associates of President Saakashvili. And in addition to Merabishvili, there are former Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili (who fled to Austria the day after the election) and the current secretary of the National Security Council, leader of Georgian libertarians Giga Bokeria, there. And only then the authorities can think about the impeachment of the president – they will only need evidence base for this.
