Bachiashvili's Lawyer: If This Was a Confrontation, Why Weren't We Notified?

Jandieri speculates that Friday was deliberately chosen for the assault on Giorgi Bachiashvili because lawyers do not have access to convicts or the ability to meet with them over the weekend.

"A few days before, the prosecutor issued a decree prohibiting Giorgi Bachiashvili from any communication with the outside world, including his lawyers. We can visit him physically, but he has no phone access to either his family or his lawyers.

When this incident occurred, for 24 hours afterward, Giorgi Bachiashvili constantly demanded communication with his lawyers and the Public Defender's Office. This happened both in Facility No. 8 and with the emergency medical brigade. At Vivamedi, the doctor informed him he wouldn't receive medical assistance if he kept demanding to speak with his lawyers. Only after 24 hours, on Saturday evening, a representative of the Public Defender called us because they were finally allowed to contact him. The lawyers arrived immediately and stayed there until midnight, but we did not have access to him," Jandieri stated.

The lawyer explained that the Ministry of Justice is not the agency that should investigate the incident, as it involves actions carried out by employees of the justice system. Giorgi Bachiashvili's representatives appealed to the Prosecutor's Office today to initiate an investigation.

Giorgi Bachiashvili, sentenced to 11 years in the so-called Bitcoin case, was beaten in his cell at Gldani Penitentiary Facility No. 8 on Friday, July 11. Information about this was initially reported by TV Pirveli on July 14, soon followed by a detailed letter from the prisoner himself, describing the incident.

According to Bachiashvili, at 7 PM, an unknown person entered his cell, where he had been alone for the past week, and verbally and physically assaulted him. The prisoner states that three days before this incident, on July 8, he was summoned by David Gogoberishvili, head of Penitentiary Facility No. 8, who "repeatedly advised" him to grant Bidzina Ivanishvili access to his "bank accounts, cryptocurrency transactions, and account addresses."

“I connect my beating to an unlawful attempt to forcibly seize my property and to intimidation,” says Giorgi Bachiashvili.

The Special Penitentiary Service called the case an "incident between inmates" and stated that the relevant investigative unit of the Ministry of Justice is conducting an investigation.

Bachiashvili was sued by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream party. According to the Prosecutor's Office, Bachiashvili handed over only $536,900 to Ivanishvili from the profits of the investment, while unlawfully appropriating the remaining 8,986 bitcoins owed to the investor, valued at approximately $43 million at the time. Giorgi Bachiashvili does not consider himself guilty.