Thread by @AnnaGvarishvili

“I often thought of hanging myself on the facade of the Supreme Court building - the pressure was unbearable,” says former Supreme Court judge Besarion Alavidze in a newly released recording.

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The two-hour tape, recorded in May 2022 at @GYLA_CSO's office, details how he and other judges were pressured to issue rulings dictated by those in power. The recording was not made public until Alavidze left the country. 2/

Among the cases he mentions are all the high-profile political trials that the opposition has long claimed were politically motivated. He also describes the so-called “court clan,” recalling how clan leader Mikheil Chinchaladze once locked him in a room until he made the “right” decision. 3/

“I thought many times: I’ll climb the facade of the Supreme Court and hang myself in my judicial robe, so people will see a judge has taken his own life and finally understand the situation in the courts. That was the level of pressure and stress I faced,” Alavidze says in the video. 4/

According to Alavidze, the orders often came directly from Bidzina Ivanishvili.

The recording is over two hours long. I’ll be updating this thread with more quotes as I review it. 5/

Besarion Alavidze first recalls how he became a target of the Georgian Dream government in 2014 because of the “Metallurgical Plant case.”

At that time, he says, the “court clan” was still settling its ties with the new government. 6/

“Vasil Roinishvili [currently deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court] told me in this case the previous ruling must be upheld. I told him that until I reviewed the case myself, nothing could be upheld — the case had serious problems… Roinishvili was insisting that the decision must favor the Patarkatsishvili family. On the other side was Joseph Kay. Kote Kublashvili [then-chairman of the Supreme Court] was suggesting that maybe we could change something in the ruling. But Vasil Roinishvili’s position was clear,” recalls the ex-judge. 7/

When Alavidze refused to follow Roinishvili’s instructions, he says he received a phone call from Valeri Tsertsvadze, the former head of the Tbilisi Court of Appeals. 8/

“…They summoned me to Chinchaladze’s [Mikheil Chinchaladze] office. Chinchaladze was head of the Administrative Chamber and should have had nothing to do with a civil case. Yet there I found Murusidze and Valeri Tsertsvadze. This was around 2014… They basically told me they thought I was obeying Kote [Kote Kublashvili], and then they cursed him out,” Alavidze recounts. 9/

When that didn’t work, the judges from the clan summoned him to a restaurant.

“At that café were [Levan] Murusidze, Chinchaladze, Valeri Tsertsvadze, and if I’m not mistaken, Roinishvili as well. It was pure criminal-style, street-style intimidation,” says Alavidze. He recalls being told that he would face problems, lose his job, and be accused of taking bribes if he didn’t comply. He feared that even his family members might be at risk. 10/

“I told them: I’ll end my life and rule out the right decision,” Alavidze says. He describes another meeting in a café where Valeri Tsertsvadze met him one-on-one. After this, Alavidze attempted suicide — but at 5 a.m. in the Supreme Court building, Levan Murusidze suddenly appeared. 11/

With Murusidze, Alavidze agreed to step away from the case, citing “excessive caseload.” Another powerful figure in the court clan, Valeri Tsertsvadze, then made a chilling “offer”: 12/

“Valeri Tsertsvadze told me: injure yourself, or we will injure you — break your hand or your leg…” Alavidze recalls. He explains how, with the help of his assistant, he arranged with a doctor in Surami to undergo an artificial surgical procedure, faking an injury. 13/

In the end, the case was reassigned to other judges, including Vasil Roinishvili and Levan Murusidze. 14/

Leaving here my old thread where I try to explain Georgia’s corrupt judicial system

https://x.com/annagvarishvili/status/1853747878511952083?s=46

Alavidze also recalls receiving a direct death threat in one high-profile case: if he refused to deliver the “desired” ruling, they told him they would “blow his brains out.” 15/

He says that after he resisted pressure in the opposition TV channel Rustavi 2 case and refused to issue the decision the regime wanted, the State Security Service itself became involved. 16/

His account is confirmed by a 2022 Facebook post from Soso Gogashvili, the former deputy head of SSS, who wrote about how the agency was engaged in racketeering judges, including Alavidze. Shortly after making these statements, Gogashvili was arrested by the regime. 17/