According to the Special Penitentiary Service, former Prime Minister and convicted individual Irakli Gharibashvili did not temporarily leave the penitentiary institution for his family member's birthday.

The agency is responding to information circulated in the media according to which the ex-Prime Minister was taken out of the penitentiary institution for his child's birthday.

According to the agency's explanation, the issue of taking Gharibashvili out of prison was not even discussed, and furthermore, a birthday does not constitute one of the exceptional circumstances defined by the Penitentiary Code that would allow a convicted person to temporarily leave the penitentiary institution.

"We would like to respond to yet another piece of disinformation disseminated by a specific media outlet regarding convicted individual Irakli Gharibashvili allegedly leaving the penitentiary institution for a family member's birthday.

We emphasize that convicted individual Irakli Gharibashvili not only did not temporarily leave the penitentiary institution — the mentioned issue was not even discussed by the Special Penitentiary Service.

Furthermore, for the purpose of informing the public, we clarify that, in accordance with the Penitentiary Code, the Director General of the Service may grant a convicted person the right to temporarily leave the place of imprisonment only in strictly defined cases by law.

A convicted person's family member's birthday does not constitute one of the exceptional circumstances defined by law on the basis of which a convicted person may temporarily leave the penitentiary institution.

Convicted individual Irakli Gharibashvili's living cell is under 24-hour video surveillance. The personal data of the convicted person are protected in accordance with the requirements of Georgian legislation. The processing of personal data, including their disclosure, occurs only when there are specific grounds defined by the legislation of Georgia on the protection of personal data, which do not exist in this case, and the Special Penitentiary Service cannot disclose video material.

Interested persons may apply to the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia, which is authorized, in compliance with the procedures and rules established by law, to familiarize itself on site, in the administrative building of the penitentiary service, with the video material that will indisputably confirm the unreality of the disseminated information.

We once again call on all media outlets to refrain from disseminating such disinformation, which aims to mislead society," — the information states.