Representatives of independent presidential candidate Badri Patarkatsishvili claimed on December 13 the government are trying to stop him from launching his campaign, after it emerged that the Imedi TV founder will not receive additional guarantees of immunity if he returns to Georgia.

“The government are preventing Patarkatsishvili from beginning his election campaign and are trying to deny him his constitutional rights,” Valery Gelbakhiani, a spokesman for Patarkatsishvili’s campaign office said yesterday.

He was talking after government officials ruled out further guarantees of immunity for the business tycoon—who is wanted for questioning by the Prosecutor General’s Office regarding his role in an alleged coup attempt on November 7—in addition to the existing legal guarantee of immunity for all presidential candidates.

“No state official can promise more or less than [what is] envisaged by the law,” online news source Civil.ge quoted Davit Bakradze, a state minister and spokesman for ruling party candidate Mikheil Saakashvili, as saying yesterday.

Patarkatsishvili was confirmed as a presidential candidate on December 9; however, the CEC can lift his suspend his immunity if the Prosecutor General’s Office provides sufficient evidence to show this is justified.

The businessman is currently based in London and Israel, and his campaign team demand written guarantees for his safety before he returns to Georgia. Gelbakhiani said they will now appeal to foreign diplomats to press the government on this issue, adding that Patarkatsishvili’s campaign cannot properly begin until he arrives back in the country.

A representative of Patarkatsishvili’s campaign team in Batumi said his supporters there would stage a protest unless the business mogul receives guarantees of absolute immunity, Rustavi 2 reported.

Speaking yesterday, Justice Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili claimed the demands for additional guarantees are a campaign trick “aimed at creating the image of one persecuted candidate, somehow different from the rest.”

On December 11, Gelbakhiani announced that Patarkatsishvili plans to spend USD 1 billion of his personal fortune on social programs if he wins the January 5 snap presidential election.

“That won’t be state budget but his own money,” Gelbakhiani told the state-owned public broadcaster, adding that Patarkatsishvili would go into the details of this plan when he arrives in Georgia.

However, CEC chair Levan Tarkhnishvili said Patarkatsishvili’s pledge could be regarded as an indirect attempt at bribing voters, according to news agency NewsGeorgia.