Giorgi Bachiashvili, a former associate of Georgian Dream founder and billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, was unexpectedly released from prison, his lawyer told multiple media outlets on February 18.
The Prosecutor General’s Office also confirmed the release, saying Bachiashvili “fully admitted to all the crimes in every criminal case, cooperated completely with the investigation, and compensated for the damage, for which a plea deal was arranged, resulting in a suspended sentence and a fine.”
Giorgi Bachiashvili had been sentenced in March 2025 in absentia to 11 years for embezzling a large sum of cryptocurrency from Ivanishvili and laundering the funds.
He was arrested in May following what he said was his abduction from abroad involving then State Security Service head Anri Okhanashvili. The alleged abduction followed his escape from Georgia in March, when Bachiashvili cited “credible information” that his life would be in danger if imprisoned. In September, he was also found guilty of illegal border crossing and sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
In July, Bachiashvili reported being beaten in jail. Prison authorities later suggested that staff, inmates, and Bachiashvili himself may have been involved in coordinating the incident, a controversy that led to the resignation of Georgia’s Special Penitentiary Service chief, Bezhan Obgaidze. Davit Gogoberishvili, the former head of the Gldani prison in Tbilisi, where the beating occurred, was later found dead.
Georgian authorities in September also charged Bachiashvili’s parents in absentia with assisting him in laundering up to USD 3.5 million of the illegally acquired funds.
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