Public Defender Ioseliani Visits Gharibashvili In Prison
By Messenger Staff
Thursday, September 3, 2026
Public Defender Levan Ioseliani visited former Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili at the penitentiary institution where he is being held, reviewing his detention conditions and looking into a long-term visit that was reportedly promised to him and then cancelled.
"I visited Irakli Gharibashvili in his residential cell, familiarized myself with the conditions of his detention in prison, and spoke with him on all issues, including his health, nutrition, and so on," Ioseliani said after leaving the facility. "I received exhaustive information on everything."
Ioseliani said the visit was prompted by the cancellation of a long-term incentive visit that, according to Gharibashvili, had previously been agreed. "According to Mr. Irakli [Gharibashvili], a third, long-term incentive visit had been agreed upon, which was later cancelled. However, there was no additional documentation or written appeal regarding this, since such a visit falls under the prison"s discretion, within the authority of the head of the penitentiary institution," he said.
He also said he did not discuss with Gharibashvili the letters the former prime minister published a day earlier. "We did not discuss the letters published by Mr. Irakli Gharibashvili, he did not mention them, and I did not ask any questions about them," Ioseliani said.
Ioseliani said he also spoke with prison administration officials, who told him they hold no negative attitude toward Gharibashvili and intend to continue the same incentive practices they have applied to him and other prisoners. He said officials attributed the cancelled visit to infrastructure repairs affecting the rooms where such meetings take place, not to any decision targeting Gharibashvili specifically.
"For the future, I can confirm that the prison administration has no principled objection of any kind to continuing toward Mr. Irakli [Gharibashvili] the same attitude that they have had until now, that is, that he periodically received incentive visits," Ioseliani said.
When asked if the circulating letters point to a crime that should be investigated, Ioseliani said that responsibility lies with investigative bodies, not his office.
"If information about a crime is circulating, this should be of interest to the investigative bodies. When the investigative bodies do not identify the problem or investigate within a reasonable time, in such cases there is a practice where people turn to the Public Defender and the Public Defender inquires about the reason for the delay. All questions related to a crime should be responded to by the relevant agency," he said.
Asked whether he raised the issue of psychological pressure Gharibashvili has previously described, or the observance of security measures, Ioseliani said he could only relay what Gharibashvili himself had told him. He said Gharibashvili raised no complaints about his treatment by prison administration.
"As for his prison conditions, including the conditions of treatment by the administration toward him, he expressed no complaints whatsoever regarding this. If anything of the sort had taken place, believe me, I would be the first to say so. The only issue regarding which he had a complaint was the cancellation of the visit, about which I have informed you. It is difficult for me to say more than this," Ioseliani said.
The visit follows a call from Gharibashvili's lawyer, Lili Gelashvili, for the Public Defender to intervene, after she said Gharibashvili"s rights were being violated. Gelashvili said a long-term visit scheduled for August 26, during which Gharibashvili was to see his children for the first time in three months, was cancelled.
"A long-term visit was scheduled for 26 August. He was supposed to see his children, whom he had not seen for three months, and this visit was cancelled. How the cancellation of a scheduled visit is a lie is not difficult to verify," Gelashvili said.
