One of the leaders of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party, Giga Bokeria, was questioned by investigators from the State Security Service on Saturday evening after being summoned as a “witness” in connection to ongoing investigation into alleged “conspiracy to overthrow” the government.
“It is really pity that employees of our counter-intelligence had to waste time on such foolish, absurd issue,” Bokeria told journalists outside the State Security Service headquarters in Tbilisi after he was interrogated.
The Georgian State Security Service said in a brief statement earlier on Saturday that it opened investigation under article 315 of the criminal code involving “conspiracy to overthrow” the government.
It said that the probe was launched “based on operative-investigative activities carried out by the counter-intelligence department and information reported in the media outlets.”
“All the necessary operative-investigative activities will be carried out in frames of the ongoing investigation,” it said without elaborating details.
“Information reported in the media outlets”, noted in the security agency’s statement, appears to be a reference to a text, which was posted on a murky website called “Ukrainian WikiLeaks”, hosted and registered in Russia, and then re-printed or reported by some Georgian media outlets, including Imedi TV, on October 23. The text in question, veracity of which has not been substantiated in any way, is alleged to be a transcript of a conversation between Georgia’s ex-President and governor of Odessa region in Ukraine, Mikheil Saakashvili, and one of the leaders of UNM opposition party Giga Bokeria in Istanbul airport on October 22. According to this text, carried by the website which is focused mostly on publishing unsubstantiated stories against Saakashvili, the two men were speaking about plotting an attack against Rustavi 2 TV personnel in order to then trigger mass protests against the government.
“I do not think there is any person who would consider this delirium seriously,” Bokeria said after he was interrogated.
“This is the least problem in comparison to the huge problem, which [ex-PM Bidzina] Ivanishvili’s regime represents for this country,” he said.
“But we should take seriously challenge that future of our country faces – that is Ivanishvili and his puppets [in the government]. I am sure that our society will solve this problem timely,” Bokeria added.
Bokeria, who served as secretary of the National Security Council when Saakashvili was the President, said in separate remarks earlier on Saturday that ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili has no chance of maintaining his grip on power “even in the condition of least democratic elections and is trying now, one year before the elections, to neutralize all those institutions, which would obstruct him in maintaining power.”
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