About

                                     Igor Giorgadze

Georgian politician, statesman and a public figure.
Minister of Security of Georgia (1993-1995), lieutenant-general, veteran of the Soviet and Georgian intelligence services. Founder and the chairman of a Georgian diaspora-uniting organization, "Georgia Abroad".

Igor Giorgadze was born on June 23, 1950 in the city of Zaysan, near the China-Kazakhstan border, into a military family. He spent his childhood and early adolescence in Georgia where he lived with his paternal grandparents. Due to the constant relocation because of the nature of his father's job, he finished high school in Azerbaijan. He was a keen athlete and an amateur football player, he also studied music and played the violin. Giorgadze  showed an inclination towards foreign languages since childhood and is fluent in five languages.

Education and Professional Career

On the advice of his father, Giorgadze commenced his higher education in the Moscow Security Academy from which he graduated with honors in 1973 with a degree in jurisprudence and foreign languages. After his graduation he was assigned to work for the Central Apparatus of the USSR but instead he requested to be moved to Georgia based on his desire to live, marry and raise his children there. He was then transferred to the Security Committee of Georgia.

From 1973 to 1995 he worked in Georgia and rose through the ranks of an ordinary operative officer to the Minister of State Security of Georgia. 

In 1980-1981, together with nine other Georgian officers, he was deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan,  as a part of the special operations task force group of the Committee for State Security, "Kaskad".  During that period of service he was awarded fifteen government decorations.  After returning from Afghanistan, he worked for the Counterintelligence Department of the State Security Service, later, as  Head of Akhaltsikhe and Poti State Security Service, and in 1990 he became the Head of the Counterintelligence Service of Georgia. 

During Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s brief term as President of Georgia, Giorgadze was the Head of the Counterintelligence of the Security Service of Georgia. During the so-called Tbilisi Civil War (December 1991 – January 1992) the acting Minister of Security Service of Georgia, Tamaz Ninua, did not interfere in the ongoing events, therefore the Security Service observed strict neutrality with regard to the struggle for power between Gamsakhurdia and Shevardnadze. Despite this, when Zviad Gamsakhurdia summoned Giorgadze to his bunker with a request to accept sensitive cargo at the Poti Sea Port (which was coming from Romania with ammunition for the adherents of Gamsakhurdia), Giorgadze decided to honor his  professional commitment and stand ready to carry out his responsibilities to the legitimately elected president. Along with his team,  Giorgadze set out for the Port to accept the cargo but was forced to turn back from halfway as Gamsakhurdia decided to leave the bunker and the mission was aborted; the ship eventually sailed to the Autonomous Republic of Adjara.

In 1992, Igor Giorgadze started to work in the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. He established the General Division for Counterintelligence along with the elite Special Forces Unit “Alpha” under the Ministry. Subsequently he was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Defense.  

In 1993, along with the Division under his management, Giorgadze was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs where he was appointed as the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs. At the same time, he laid the foundation for the creation of the Special Task Air Assault Brigade of Mukhrovani, the establishment of which was fully completed during his tenure as the Security Minister.



Ministerial Tenure and Political Conflict 

In October, 1993, Giorgadze was appointed as the Minister of Security of the Republic of Georgia. During his Ministerial tenure he was tasked with developing a system of security for the now independent Georgia from scratch. He strengthened the Ministry of Security and added the Special Task Air Assault Brigade to the Special Forces Units “Alpha” and “Omega”.  

As the Minister, Giorgadze established and maintained active relations with the US, Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish, Armenian, Azeri and other countries' special services and government agencies. During that time he established contacts with his foreign colleagues, influential politicians and statesmen. These connections enabled him to send members of his division to be trained by the best instructors on the bases of Central Intelligence Services of the United States and  Russia. 

Under Igor Giorgadze's command, the first Georgian Special Forces Units “Alpha” and “Omega” carried out numerous successful bloodless operations both during the Tbilisi Civil War and Abkhaz Civil War. Igor Giorgadze laid grounds to these types of operations and did everything possible to avoid the fratricidal war. The operations included, among others, the well-known incident with Tengiz Kitovani and his brigade whereby a 400 person convoy under Kitovani's command was stopped without firing a single bullet in West Georgia, preventing Kitovani from reigniting bloodshed in Abkhazia; numerous hostage rescue operations; return of the military equipment stolen during the Civil War; intelligence activities that were carried out in the occupied Georgian territory at the height of war in Abkhazia; and the apprehension of terrorist suspects and safe transportation to penitentiary facilities specifically built for them for their security.

From the moment of his appointment, Igor Giorgadze became increasingly popular among the Georgian population, and thus increasingly problematic for Shevardnadze. Matters were worsened by their personal and political disagreements; Giorgadze often refused to comply with direct or indirect unethical orders from Shevardnadze such as practically a direct order to liquidate Zviad Gamsakhurdia; Giorgadze turned his special team from Samegrelo (where President Gamsakhurdia had fled) back to Tbilisi and created a corridor through which Gamsakhurdia could escape. This act outraged Shevardnadze and set the stage for what would eventually turn to a serious confrontation. Shevardnadze ruled Georgia by turning people against each other, provoking enmity and resentment among them. Using these methods he tried to remove from the political scene and physically liquidate Jaba Ioseliani and Tengiz Kitovani, the very people who had brought him from Russia to power in Georgia. Giorgadze refused to execute these orders as well. 

Moreover, the conflict between them intensified after Giorgadze’s official visit to the United States of America, where he was personally invited by the Head of the Central Intelligence Agency, James Woolsey, during which, for the first time in the history of the country, bilateral cooperation between the intelligence agencies of independent Republic of Georgia and the United States were signed. On the day of his return to Georgia, Giorgadze conveyed a message from the director of the CIA to Shevardnadze: the United States Government was concerned with the fact that a mafia state was being established in Georgia. These words and the fact that Giorgadze agreed with them angered Shevardnadze. His answer was: “Who are they to lecture me? America was founded by robbers and bandits, today their descendants are bankers and businessmen!” 

The most crucial and fate-deciding disagreement between Shevardnadze and Giorgadze occurred in May 1995, where six months before the presidential elections, Giorgadze held a meeting at the Ministry of Security, attended by Shevardnadze's trustees, in which Giorgadze officially stated that the Ministry of Security would not permit the rigging of the November 5th elections. This meant the loss of the elections for Shevardnadze, as at the time, Shevardnadze's ratings were under 12%. Three months later, on August 29, while Giorgadze was on a work related trip upon Shevardnadze's request, an explosion took place in the designated car park of the Head of State on Parliament grounds, which was under the supervision of Government Protection Service and Shevardnadze's private security, involving a mined vehicle which was registered as the property of Shevardnadze's advisor's friend, using the explosive mechanisms, which according to witness testimonies, was tested by Shevardnadze's right hand man, the then Interior Minister, Shota Kviraia. This incident would eventually be used as an excuse to remove Giorgadze from the Ministry of Security post and "successfully" rig the elections in November. 



Trumped Up Charges and Torture

On September 2, 1995, Giorgadze was removed from his post. The next day, he held a press conference and announced his plans to leave Georgia temporarily. On September 4th, he left the country without any obstruction.  By September 16, the law enforcement authorities claimed they had opened all cases including the August 29th incident - Giorgadze was named neither a suspect nor a mastermind. On September 21, Igor Giorgadze sent Eduard Shevardnadze a letter, accusing Shevardnadze of corruption, loss of Georgian territories, deaths of innocent people and covering for the political assassinations committed by the then Minister of Internal Affairs, Shota Kviraia. The following day, on September 22, the Ministry of Internal Affairs together with other government structures began the persecution of individuals close to Mr. Giorgadze, arresting and intimidating them. On the morning of September 26, the aforementioned letter was published in media outlets as an open letter to Eduard Shevardnadze and by the evening of September 26, the Georgian prosecutors office issued an arrest warrant, where they accused Giorgadze of organizing the August 29th attack on the Head of State. Thus began Giorgadze's political persecution by the Shevardnadze government through a trumped-up criminal case brought against him. 

During the State investigation of that case many people were brutally tortured, maimed and killed. Those who weren't murdered were subjected to various forms of torture including: electroshock, repeated beating, burying in the ground up to their necks, maiming, threatened with rape, as well as with rape and murder of their family members, and other inhumane sadistic methods. All these atrocities of Shevardnadze’s government were aimed at obtaining the testimonies from detained persons and pining the incident on Giorgadze.

Irrespective of all the above, and despite the fact that the so called “Trial of the Century” was under  Shevardnadze’s government's control, with over 300 witnesses and 14 defendants being questioned in the court proceedings (1997-1998), the “Trial of the Century” failed to produce any evidence or testimony against Giorgadze. But Shevardnadze’s government remained vindictive and turned Giorgadze into a convenient scape-goat whose name would be brought up before any wave of political persecution and without any evidence, new charges would be pressed against especially him around election times.

Ironically, years later, Eudard Shevardnadze would recall the details of the August 29th incident in a televised memoir "Tsami, Tsameba, "Tsamiereba" ("A Second, Torture, Momentariness") where just like in his trial testimony he did not mention Igor Giorgadze's name in any context. Moreover, after his downfall, Shevardnadze admitted in an interview to "Georgian Times" that he had "never seen any evidence" against Giorgadze.



Deprivation of the Right to Participate in Elections 

Despite political persecution, Igor Giorgadze continued to be involved in active political life and made attempts to participate in various elections in Georgia in absentia.

In particular, in October, 1999 he announced his intention to participate in the upcoming Parliamentary elections, but without any explanation the Central Election Commission refused to register him. In 2003 Giorgadze, again, stood to be elected as a majority deputy of Samtredia region in the Parliamentary elections in Georgia. The Electoral Commission did not register his application and the Saakashvili government did everything it could to prevent him from participating in the Parliamentary elections. Despite the fact that the Samtredia Election Commission had registered Igor Giorgadze as a majoritarian candidate, the Central Election Commission once again withdrew his candidacy without explanation. 

After the so called “Rose Revolution” the initiative group in the Central Election Commission named Igor Giorgadze as a candidate for the upcoming presidential elections. At that time those wishing to participate in the elections were to collect 50, 000 signatures to be registered as candidates. The initiative group in just one week submitted 120, 000 signatures of  citizens who wished to have Mr. Giorgadze as the head of State. It was the third time that the Central Election Commission of Georgia refused to register Igor Giorgadze. The fact that the candidate was nominated by the initiative group who complied with all the requirements of the legislation and should have, therefore, been registered in accordance with the law, was disregarded by the State. 



The Next Wave of Political Persecution

In 2004 Igor Giorgadze, after being deprived of the right to take part in the elections, was elected as Chairman of the “Samartlianoba” (Justice) Party. The above party had 27, 000 official members, a youth wing, offices in 80 regions within Georgia, and over half a million Party supporters. The Party campaigned against the Saakashvili regime, which while espousing democratic principles, was rife with anti-democratic structures and policies. The Justice Party focused on building a pro-Georgian united state and restoring the territorial integrity of Georgia. The Party platform was for an independent Judiciary/prosecutorial system and against political prosecution and violence in general. As part of their campaign, they held a number of protests and rallies that were peaceful, authorized and within full compliance of the law. The Saakashvili government reacted by violently dispersing rallies, obstructing the work of the Party, carrying out illegal wiretapping, surveilling active party members, waging psychological warfare on members, acting as provocateurs among the protesters and physically abusing the protesters, as well as using zonder groups and terror to punish the protesters coming to rallies from various Georgian regions. Dozens of cases of beatings and inhumane treatment and damages to buses bringing protesters to rallies were reported to the authorities who did not investigate any of the incidents let alone hold assailants legally accountable. 

In 2006 Igor Giorgadze was officially granted political asylum. He held a press conference in Moscow where he openly spoke about his political plans and the Swiss political model he would apply to Georgia were he to be elected, and thus, be able to return to Georgia, peacefully replacing the Saakashvili regime. Following that press conference, Saakashvili’s government stepped up attempts to discredit Giorgadze through an aggressive smear campaign that used lies, false accusations and negative publicity, via TV, print media and online. All of this eventually culminated on September 6, 2006 when 14 innocent people, including the niece of Igor Giorgadze's wife – Maia Topuria –  were detained and charged with a trumped-up crime: conspiracy to overthrow the government. 

By detaining opposition party members belonging to five different parties: “Language, Motherland, Faith”, “Conservative-Monarchists”, “Samartlianoba”, “the 21st century”, “Imedi”, along with Maia Topuria, the Saakashvili government attempted to create the storyline that five opposition parties' campaigns were really Russia's attempt to overthrow Saakashvili through Giorgadze. It must be noted that Giorgadze himself was not charged in this case, even though according to the false allegations he was accused of being the mastermind behind the non-existent conspiracy. Clearly, the motivation behind the arrests was political; it was a strategy to remove the threat of Giorgadze/opposition parties and intimidate others challenging Saakashvili's rule. Moreover, former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili regularly violated Igor Giorgadze’s presumption of innocence.  With his populist statements Saakashvili tried to create a negative public opinion about Giorgadze in order to undermine Giorgadze's political message. One of many of such attacks, on Giorgadze's reputation, was made on January 29, 2013 at the Defense Academy of Georgia, where Saakashvili, repeating worn out false allegations against Giorgadze, underlined the idea that Igor Giorgadze should never be allowed to return to Georgia, appealing to future governments to do the same, and publicly admitted that he had done everything to remove Giorgadze’s supporters from the political scene and to make sure that Giorgadze never came near Georgia. This would explain why, since 2005, after the passing of new legislation permitting trials in absentia  Giorgadze's regular legal appeal  to have his case reviewed in court,  remained arbitrarily blocked and ignored. 

Following the detention of Maia Topuria and her political co-defendants, the international community came out with a sharp response and condemned the political imprisonment  of opposition party members by the Saakashvili government. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) recognized Maia Topuria as a political prisoner.  Numerous letters regarding this matter were sent to Mikheil Saakashvili from various organizations, such as from the Helsinki Commission, the US Senate and the US Congress condemning the arrests and calling for release of these political prisoners.

The case was re-investigated on the motion of the Department Investigating Offenses Committed in the Course of Legal Proceedings under the Chief Prosecutor's Office of Georgia. On May 25, 2018 the Court of Appeals overturned the previous conviction after the investigation revealed that no conspiracy to violently overthrow the Saakashvili government ever took place and that the criminal case against the accused was  solely politically motivated. 



Current Proceedings 

On March 30, 2016, after a twenty-one-year wait, the criminal case initiated against Giorgadze was finally brought before court. It is noteworthy, that in June of the same year, INTERPOL removed Mr. Giorgadze from the wanted list on the basis that the defense successfully proved that the charges against Mr. Giorgadze were politically motivated and therefore in conflict with INTERPOL's Constitution and rules.

The trial is ongoing, thus far, none of the hundreds of the interrogated witnesses for the prosecution have given any testimony against Igor Giorgadze.