Advocates claim pressure on arrested deputy head of Georgia's SSS

Soso Gogashvili, a former deputy head of the Georgian State Security Service (SSS), who is in custody on charges of illegal possession of weapons, abuse of power and violation of the secrecy of personal data, has received threats demanding to give the necessary testimonies, his advocates have informed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 16 this year, law enforcers detained Soso Gogashvili, who had stated that he had information about the rigged voting at the 2021 elections. Before his arrest, Gogashvili managed to hand over documents about electoral frauds to a reliable person.

Ramaz Chinchaladze, an advocate, said at a briefing on August 11 that Gogashvili and the head of a law enforcement body had a telephone conversation, during which the high-ranking law enforcer threatened his client and demanded to give the necessary testimonies.

"On July 28, Soso Gogashvili, who is kept in a penitentiary institution, was taken to a separate room and pointed to a telephone standing on the windowsill. A few minutes later, the phone rang, Gogashvili picked up the phone, [the head of the law enforcement body] talked to him," Mr Chinchaladze said live on air of the "Formula TV" Channel.

Gogashvili later told the advocate that a rather tense talk took place with the high-ranking law enforcer; the latter mostly pronounced threats. "The main demand was that Gogashvili give the necessary testimonies on the issues that he had stated after his arrest on his page in the social network."

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 12, 2022 at 03:50 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.