Former Prime Minister of Georgia Garibashvili has been charged with a new accusation.

The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has charged former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili with receiving a bribe in a particularly large amount. According to the supervisory authority, this concerns a bribe he received in connection with secret state procurements of the Ministry of Defense.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", on January 12 of this year, former Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili was sentenced to five years in prison. Garibashvili entered into a procedural agreement and pleaded guilty.

According to Deputy Attorney General of Georgia Amiran Guluashvili, the investigation established that from 2021 to 2024, while serving as Prime Minister, Garibashvili coordinated the activities of ministers, including the Ministry of Defense. During the same period, the Minister of Defense was Juansher Burchuladze, reports the publication Bm.ge.

According to the prosecution, since the end of 2022, the Ministry of Defense needed to purchase expensive medical equipment and inventory for the military hospital named after Giorgi Abashvili. The procurements were to be conducted under secret procedures.

A relative of Burchuladze, convicted Vasili Mkheidze, contacted an entrepreneur and offered to organize the procurements in such a way that the companies associated with him would guaranteed win the tenders at the desired price. For this, the entrepreneur was to hand over cash in an amount equivalent to about 10% of the total value of the contracts.

The prosecution states that after receiving the corresponding patronage from Garibashvili, Deputy Minister of Defense Giorgi Khaindrava and the head of the procurement department Vladimir Gudaushauri, acting on Burchuladze's instructions, created non-competitive conditions during the conduct of three secret procurements.

As a result, according to the investigation, companies associated with the entrepreneur supplied the Ministry of Defense with medical equipment and other inventory at inflated prices. The prosecution estimates that this scheme caused property damage to the state in the amount of more than 6.98 million lari (about 2.67 million dollars).

Garibashvili is charged with receiving a bribe by a public official, as part of a group, and in a particularly large amount. If found guilty, he could face 11 to 15 years in prison.

The new charge against Garibashvili was brought a few days after a series of his public statements about pressure from former allies in the "Georgian Dream" party. The former Prime Minister claimed that he was being pressured to admit to a new corruption case to finally close the door to him in politics, reports the Pirveli TV company.

According to Garibashvili, in July he received a letter from one of the leaders of the ruling party Mamuka Mdinaradze, informing him that despite his promise not to return to politics, the authorities still see the possibility of such a scenario.

According to the former high-ranking official, to eliminate this risk, he was offered to admit to the new charge. Instead, the former Prime Minister writes, he faced a "dirty staged provocation" and decided to no longer remain silent. "Accordingly, since I have no other way out, I am being forced to start a fight," Garibashvili wrote.

The first of three public addresses by Garibashvili appeared on August 17. At that time, the former Prime Minister stated that he holds the founder of the "Georgian Dream" Bidzina Ivanishvili and the Georgian authorities responsible for his safety and the safety of his family. The next day, he published a letter explaining why he made such a statement. Later, Garibashvili made another public address, continuing to speak about pressure from the authorities.

Let us recall that Irakli Garibashvili is one of the founders of the ruling party "Georgian Dream". He served as head of government from 2013 to 2015 and from 2021 to 2024. From February 1, 2024, he was the chairman of the "Georgian Dream" party. On April 25, 2025, Garibashvili announced that he was leaving the post of chairman of the "Georgian Dream" and politics altogether.

Garibashvili's resignation as Prime Minister in 2024 may have been related to rumors about his expensive acquisitions, inconsistent with the official income of the head of government, political scientists indicated in interviews with the "Caucasian Knot". Georgian media have repeatedly raised questions about the origin of Garibashvili's and his relatives' expensive property, in particular, about the collection of undeclared expensive watches, designer outfits, and jewelry of his wife, and about sending his son to study in the USA on a government plane.

On April 11, 2024, opposition deputies in parliament gathered the necessary number of signatures to create a temporary investigative commission to examine the legality of the origin of Garibashvili's property.