Prosecutor’s Office releases controversial letter provided by TBC Founder

The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office has released a letter which was mentioned by the founder of TBC Bank Mamuka Khazaradze in Parliament on Monday, claiming that he received it containing threats from Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia before the second round of presidential elections at the end of 2018.

The letter cites two media outlets-TV1 and ARTAREA and reads as follows:

“We have an information that you are fighting against us and the fight does not concern only business.

We said that we are ready for cooperation but you still act destructively.

Without any preconditions:

Within the following five days TV1 must follow the policy of Imedi TV regarding the emergency regime [Imedi stated before the second round of presidential elections in November 2018 that it worked in an emergency regime to avoid the return of the United National Movement. Another leading Georgian TV Rustavi 2, which is opposition minded, also worked in an emergency regime].

M.Kh. must make a public statement that the United National Movement is unacceptable to him, must speak about how business was treated during the UNM’s time and appeal to businesspeople to unite around his view and act unanimously.

A high level of impartiality must become obvious for ARTAREA [TV].

After the demands are fulfilled we are ready for healthy cooperation without any preconditions.

“If not, we will use all legal and objective measures, we will do so publicly, for Georgian and international consumers.”

Vakhtang Tsereteli, the 100 per cent shareholder of TV1, says he had business cooperation with TBC and Khazaradze.

He believes that the letter expresses the wish to exercise control on an independent media.

He claims that somebody wanted to use Khazaradze to deliver the message regarding the change of the editorial policy to him.

“We have not been and never be influenced by politics,” he said.

Members of the Georgian Dream ruling party say that the letter is “meaningless”, providing no evidence that it was written by Gakharia.

Gakharia says that he never writes letters and that some people are trying to avoid responsibilities.

Khazaradze handed the copy of the letter to the Prosecutor’s Office and sent its original to London to be studied, whether there are fingertips or other signs identifying its writer.

He refused to name the individual who handed him the letter.

The Prosecutor’s Office says that Khazaradze refused to cooperate with them and that it is impossible to study a printed copy of a document.

Khazaradze’s lawyer Irakli Kordzadze states that the TBC founder spoke about the letter he received in November 2018 with members of diplomatic corps and several businessmen.

However, as he said, the Prosecutor’s Office did not summon the people for an interrogation.

Khazaradze said that as he did not fulfill the demands listed in the letter as attack was launched against him and TBC Bank and an investigation into “absurd” money laundering accusations was brought by the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office against him and another co-founder of the bank, Badri Japaridze.