Georgia’s former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has opened fire politically against the current prime minister and Mamuka Mdinaradze, Tazo Datunashvili, one of the leaders of Lelo - Strong Georgia, said after being questioned at the City Court in connection with the death of human rights defender Lazare Jorbenadze.

According to Datunashvili, the questioning concerned only Lazare Jorbenadze’s death, and no other case was mentioned.

“I named Irakli Garibashvili solely as my only source of information regarding Lazare Jorbenadze’s alleged suicide. It was quite a strange procedure. From the very first question, I explained that I had made a political statement about the cannibalistic confrontation between two Georgian Dream prime ministers, which reflected the difficult situation within Georgian Dream. I did not mention this specific case in any of my statements, yet for 45 minutes every question was about whether I knew anything about this suicide case.

“Every time, I gave the same explanation: I made a political statement concerning the political statement of a politician, now a convicted former Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, in which he opened direct political fire against the current former prime minister and Mamuka Mdinaradze.

“I am ready to come after each of my statements and speak about this in this extraordinary format, in the presence of a magistrate judge. In reality, for our fellow citizens to understand, this is an absolute waste of their tax money, with public officials being occupied with this nonsense,” Datunashvili said.

As for whether Irakli Garibashvili could face new charges for allegedly giving false testimony, Datunashvili said he could not speculate on the matter.

“As in all my statements, here too I assess the obvious facts that are visible both to you and to me. The matter is simple - this is a propaganda storm that has been created around this case. The goal is to smear Garibashvili and create an entire narrative suggesting that Garibashvili, Datunashvili and Gvaramia are all saying the same thing. They will not succeed.

“Garibashvili is a man who knows a great deal about the inner workings of Georgian Dream. I know nothing about that; I am assessing the process politically,” Datunashvili said.

For the record, Georgia’s former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili published another letter from prison, in which he asked, “What was the real reason for the death of human rights defender Lazare Jorbenadze?” He said that unanswered questions remain in society regarding a number of suicides that allegedly occurred during the rule of Kobakhidze and Mdinaradze.

Following this, the Prosecutor’s Office issued a statement confirming Lazare Jorbenadze’s suicide. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, despite this, based on public statements made by convicted Irakli Garibashvili and other individuals, several people were summoned for questioning as part of an ongoing investigation at the Ministry of Internal Affairs under the supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office.

Those summoned included Nika Gvaramia, Irma Inashvili, Nanuka Zhorzholiani, Khatia Dekanoidze, Tazo Datunashvili, Gia Khukhashvili, Giorgi Liluashvili, Zaza Davitaia, Ermile Nemsadze and Giorgi Gigauri. Some of them were questioned at the Digomi division, while others are being questioned at the City Court in the presence of a magistrate judge.