The press office of Regional Development Minister Mamuka Mdinaradze has dismissed claims made by former Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili as “complete absurdity.”
“[It is] complete absurdity. What Irakli Garibashvili published was already ruled out by the content of yesterday’s letter,” Rustavi 2 quoted Mdinaradze’s press office as saying.
The response follows a letter released by Garibashvili from prison, in which the former prime minister claimed that the main purpose of the government’s so-called “fight against corruption” campaign, launched last year, was to imprison him and destroy him politically.
Garibashvili said that he had refused to engage in a legal battle and had endured what he described as a “devastating process” in order to avoid harming the interests of the state and his political team. In return, he claimed, he was subjected to a “staged dirty provocation, numerous lies and injustice.”
Garibashvili claimed that he received a letter from Mdinaradze in July. He claimed that despite refusing to return to politics, members of the ruling team demanded that he admit to corruption because they were unwilling to accept even a “1% risk” associated with his potential political comeback.
The former prime minister described such a demand as a “red line” and signaled that he now intends to fight back.
“Since I have no other choice, they are forcing me to start fighting,” Garibashvili said.
The latest statement comes a day after Garibashvili issued another message in which he said that, from that point onward, Bidzina Ivanishvili and the Georgian government would bear “full responsibility” for the safety of him and his family.
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