Interview With Former Senior Official Reveals Systemic Violations in Ministry of Interior
Irakli Shaishmelashvili, the former Head of the Operational Planning Unit at the Interior Ministry’s Special Tasks Department, who resigned in early December and has since left the country for fear of reprisals against him and his family has given a revealing interview to the TV Pirveli on December 28. In it he makes a series of highly consequential statements about the systemic problems in the Ministry, about the methods used to disperse protests over the past month, particularly in the notorious MIA Special Tasks Department, about Bidzina Ivanishvili’s possible direct involvement in the decision-making process, about the illegal changes to the police code of conduct, and about the threats he has received that have forced him and his family to flee the country.
Resignation and Threats of Retribution
Shaishmelashvili had worked for 16 years in MoD, and in 2018 joined MIA. He decided to quit his job on December 3, after he said, he was emotionally unable to witness the police violence against protesters and did not want to be a part of it. In his letter of resignation, he wrote that the official reason for his departure was family circumstances, which is a standard reason, and explained to his supervisor that his own health did not allow him to continue in his post.
He said he shared his resignation letter on his Facebook page, as a self-defense measure, with the Georgian and EU flags in the description of the post. His resignation caused confrontation between Shaishmelashvili and his superiors. According to him, the Deputy Heads of the Special Tasks Department called his decision a “betrayal”, while one of them – Mirza Kezevadze – even physically assaulting him. Afterwards, he received phone calls from “whoever they could make call” threatening his life and that of his family, his children, because of his decision.
“There was talk that at this moment [in parallel with the pro-European protests] this [leaving the job] was tantamount to treason,” he noted.
Shaishmelashvili was then summoned to the MIA as part of an internal investigation into alleged administrative violations for not showing up to work. Apparently the process of his resignation had been stopped and he was expected to work, although he had already handed in his papers, car and badge. When he arrived for questioning, he told the investigator about the assault by his superior and the threats he had received, to which the investigator replied that they were not interested in that because the investigation was into other issues.
Shaishmelashvili said that while he was prepared for retaliation, he didn’t expect the “hell” he was about to unleash. He noted that he expected all sorts of lies to be spread about him and decided to leave for the US with his family to protect his children. He said that if he had stayed, he would have expected drugs or illegal weapons to be found in his home. He said: ‘In a country where justice cannot be found, I am leaving to protect my children. System officials have threatened to kill my family, including my two minor children.
“I went through a week of hell,” he said adding, “I know the methods of these people, I know what they are capable of.”
“What is happening today is a hybrid war being aggressively waged by Russia in Georgia, and unfortunately our current government is doing nothing to counter this hybrid struggle and war, and is poisoning society, including its own voters, with disinformation and lies,” he said.
Dispersals as Ordered Retaliation and Intimidation
Shaishmelashvili explained that the Special Task Department has two types of units present during demonstrations: so-called robocops [riot police] and so-called detention groups. However, he noted that after the beginning of protests on November 28, during the dispersal of the rally, he noticed other people, dressed in jeans and masked, attacking demonstrators and physically attacking them. He emphasized that he had no idea who these people were, saying that “they certainly aren’t employees of the Special Task Department.”
“I don’t know who these people are, there was no such department, this [Special Task] department has never done anything like this since the training, I don’t know who they are, where they come from, I don’t even know their faces… This [their actions] doesn’t aim at restoring order. It is unclear to me why, if not deliberately retaliating against the participants of the rally,” Shaishmelashvili said.
He also pointed out that alongside these masked men, law enforcement officials were present at the rally with no identification on their uniforms. He said that this was done deliberately so that they would enjoy impunity as long as they carried out the orders given to them. Shaishmelashvili stressed the illegal nature of this decision to mask almost all MIA employees and station units with no identification at the rallies, saying that this decision was made in 2021 by the now sanctioned Head of the Special Task Department Zviad Kharazishvili (Khareba).
“All the patrol police, the criminal police, all wear masks. Why does the police, who protect the state, need a mask?” he asked rhetorically, answering: “To not be able to identify him and to have the area of action in case of such orders,” confirming that they know they are carrying out illegal orders, knowing that the system won’t hold them accountable.
Shaishmelashvili also said that the violent behavior, excessive use of force and beatings of protesters were not isolated incidents, pointing to their systemic nature and stressing that such misconduct and violence would not occur “in a group, on a massive scale and continuously” without direct orders from higher up the chain of command.
He also said that the orders came from the head of the Special Tasks Department and allegedly from the patron of the GD, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who he said was in contact with the Minister of the Interior and possibly some department heads. He also confirmed the existence of a long-standing personal relationship between Ivanishvili and Kharazishvili.
“A policeman will not move without an order, period,” Shaishmelashvili stressed.
He confirmed that the police violence during and after the dispersals was aimed at intimidating, instilling fear in and physically retaliating against the demonstrators to prevent further demonstrations.
He emphasized that, contrary to official statements, “the authorities are lying” and there have been no investigations into cases of excessive use of force by the police and said there won’t be any in the future.
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Shaishmelashvili said he himself had participated in rallies on two occasions after his resignation, with his face covered, stressing the exceptionally peaceful nature of the ongoing protests in Georgia. He also commented on some of the aggressive rally participants, saying: “Let the public know that these are not demonstrators. [These are] provocateurs who have been sent for GEL 500 and GEL 1,000, who are specifically and deliberately cursing and throwing stones [at the police] in order to turn the whole protest into an ugly and demonized one”.
The former Head of the Operational Planning Department said that he was the one who wrote the action plan for the dispersal of rallies, which was not followed last month. He emphasized issues such as spraying much “abnormally” more gas than necessary on Rustaveli Avenue should be controlled by the superiors of the MIA, taking into account not only the health of the protesters, but that people living in residential buildings.
Another violation, he said, was the siege of the rally participants, which would take place after the law enforcers cornered the demonstrators who they called to disperse, leaving no space for the people to actually leave the area.
The former MIA official spoke of past police training provided by Georgian partners. He lamented: “A lot of time and resources, including financial, from our international partners, including the US Embassy, which largely funded such training, had gone into training law enforcement officers.” He noted that the training went into the details of how much to tighten the handcuffs on detainees’ hands.
He said that the units dispersing the current rallies have not undergone such training or with use of the specific manuals, and are being trained by people, unknown to him, who have been instructed by the MIA leadership itself.
He also generally criticized the MIA human resources approach, citing cases of people with high school education being appointed to managerial positions, and said that the merit-based cadre policy had been eroded.
July 5 Events
Irakli Shaishmelashvili revealed in the interview that on July 5, 2021, during the violent homophobic march against Tbilisi Pride, in which 53 journalists were physically assaulted and one died as a result of the injuries, police actions were coordinated with Andria Jaghmaidze, the press secretary of the Georgian Patriarchate.
According to Shaishmelashvili, Deputy Interior Minister Shalva Bedoidze informed him of this communication, which resulted in the police operation plan, prepared by him, being changed and not implemented as originally planned.
Shaishmelashvili stated, “Where we had designated units, they did not deploy us there in the numbers we had determined,” noting that Bedoidze justified the adjustment as having been agreed upon with the Patriarchate’s press secretary Jaghmaidze.
This change involved the redeployment of police units, leaving insufficient resources in critical locations. He recounted, “When they called us to participate in the task, the resources there were physically insufficient, and you know what happened in 10-15 minutes.” He lamented the outcome, stressing that by the time their units finally arrived, people had already been attacked.
Occupation Line Patrol
Irakli Shaishmelashvili criticized the Georgian government for failing to use high-tech surveillance equipment provided by the United States that can monitor far away movements near the occupation line with high resolution, even at night. The special training was also provided to relevant units.
He said that the equipment, which was distributed to villages near the occupation line, remains unused under the Ivanishvili regime. “They don’t use it, probably because they don’t want to monitor Russia,” Shaishmelashvili noted, speculating that this reluctance may stem from a desire to avoid irritating Russia.
Shaishmelashvili directly linked the lack of preventive measures to the tragic murder of Tamaz Ginturi, claiming, “If preventive measures had been taken, Ginturi’s murder would not have happened. He complained that information often came second-hand through activists like Davit Katsarava rather than through official channels. He criticized the authorities for prioritizing internal social media monitoring over essential intelligence work, stressing that such negligence allows preventable incidents to occur.