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Georgia's jailed ex-premier says the pressure now reaches his father

Irakli Gharibashvili, 8 months in custody, has sent a third statement out of prison. In a letter passed through an intermediary, netgazeti reports, he describes pressure to give evidence and a threat of arrest hanging over his 65-year-old father.

Georgia's jailed ex-premier says the pressure now reaches his father

The letter says a message from Georgian Dream executive secretary Mamuka Mdinaradze reached his family through a close friend of the secretary. Gharibashvili writes that he has sat β€œeight months in silence” and that a 20-year relationship with Bidzina Ivanishvili explains the quiet. β€œI am not fighting anyone.”

No government or prosecution reply had appeared by Friday morning, and no second outlet had picked the letter up. To the previous statement, prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on 18 August: β€œIt is not problematic for us; it is problematic for him.”

β€œI am not fighting anyone.”

The fight, if that is what it is, runs inside the ruling house: an ex-premier who served twice as prime minister for the party Ivanishvili founded, the founder himself, and the party secretary whose message he has now made public.

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