Patarkatsishvili Campaign HQ Warns of ‘Mass Arrests’

Plans are underway for ?the mass police roundup? of Badri Patarkatsishvili election campaign activists, Giorgi Zhvania, head of the Patarkatsishvili election HQ, said.

An alleged coup plot, what he called ?a myth?, would be used by the authorities to justify the action, he claimed.

Despite announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race, business tycoon Patarkatsishvili will not officially ask the Central Election Commission (CEC) to strike his name off the list of presidential candidates until January 4, just one day before polling day.

In an appeal to international organizations and foreign diplomats accredited in Georgia on December 29, Zhvania said that the authorities had ?created a myth? about an alleged coup plot and now were preparing to arrest Patarkatsishvili supporters.

?In recent days, in televised remarks, the authorities (in particular Givi Targamadze, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for defense and security) are describing Patarkatsishvili supporters as criminals,? Zhvania said in a statement.

In an obvious attempt to disassociate itself from Valery Gelbakhiani, a lawmaker who has been declared an official suspect in the alleged coup plot, Zhvania said that not a single member of the Patarkatsishvili election HQ had been aware of Gelbakhiani?s talks with an Interior Ministry official. In a covertly recorded video tape, Gelbakhiani tells Irakli Kodua, head of the Interior Ministry?s Special Operations Department (SOD), about planned post-election unrest. Gelbakhiani, who is not currently in Georgia, headed Patarkatsishvili?s election campaign, but was replaced by Zhvania after prosecutors declared him a suspect.

Zhvania also said that campaign activists throughout Georgia, particularly in Zugdidi, Tsalenjikha, Abasha, Poti, Kutaisi, Telavi, Lagodekhi, Gurjaani, Sagarejo, Zestaponi and Dedoplistskaro, were constantly summoned by local law enforcement agencies and interrogated in an attempt to intimidate them.

He also claimed that the authorities were intending to plant weapons and explosives in the campaign offices and activists? homes to back up their ?myth of a coup plot.?

?We want to reaffirm that Patarkatsishvili supporters are not preparing for any coup and they are not preparing for January 6 [an allusion to possible post-election unrest]. We are willing to have observers and journalists inspect our campaign offices and the homes of all supporters in order to explode this official myth of a planned coup,? Zhvania said.