According to Ramaz Chinchaladze, the lawyer of the former deputy head of the State Security Service, Ioseb Gogashvili, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri, called and threatened Gogashvili in prison.
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On July 28, Ioseb Gogashvili was taken to the jail bathroom, pointed to the phone on the windowsill and told that the phone would ring and Ioseb Gogashvili should answer it. A few minutes later, the phone rang. Ioseb Gogashvili answered. The Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia was talking to him. As Ioseb Gogashvili states, the conversation between them was quite tense.
If Ioseb Gogashvili would not keep silent, he should consider what could happen to him, his family, relatives, etc.
The conversation between Ioseb Gogashvili and the Minister of Internal Affairs took place the next day in the same manner. The next day, Ioseb Gogashvili and his family were asked to keep quiet. Family members met and spoke with Ioseb Gogashvili twice. However, an official decree has been issued, and Ioseb Gogashvili, apart from lawyers, is forbidden to meet and communicate by phone or in person with anyone", said lawyer Ramaz Chinchaladze.
According to Gogashvili's second lawyer, Dimitri Ghongadze, Vakhtang Gomelauri called Soso Gogashvili by phone four times. According to the lawyer, the first two cases were organized by the head of the penitentiary institution, Zurab Modebadze, who instructed Gogashvili to enter the bathroom to talk. According to him, the lawyers know from which number they called the prisoner and also which number was placed on the phone, which he used to answer the Minister of Internal Affairs: "Moreover, Ioseb Gogashvili was able to obtain necessary evidence: he took fingerprints from the mobile phone using the adhesive tape.
Neither the Special Penitentiary Service nor the Minister of Internal Affairs comments on these issues today.
After Gogashvili's arrest, accusations against high-ranking officials often spread on his Facebook page. In the statement released on July 26, the accused Soso Gogashvili writes that the Minister of Internal Affairs kidnapped his daughter's fiance: "Six years ago, the fiance of your daughter, your neighbour Amoyan or Shamoyan, I don't remember anymore, was kidnapped by Sharadze and "Mozg" under your command, tortured and thrown across the border of Armenia. They threatened him that they would plant a gun on him if he came back. Only because you didn't want to let the Kurd into your family."
Ioseb Gogashvili, who held the position of the first deputy head of the State Security Service of Georgia from 2015-2018, was arrested on July 16, 2022. The Prosecutor's Office accuses Gogashvili of obtaining and disclosing personal data of specific citizens by using his official positions and contacts in the past, thereby contributing to the public dissemination of the said information. As a result, he has been remanded in custody. If found guilty, Gogashvili faces 4 to 7 years in prison.
