The Georgian opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), has called for an investigation after its detained member, Lasha Tsanava, spoke of being blackmailed by the State Security Service (SSG). Tsanava said he was pressured to provide information about the party’s political council chair, Levan Khabeishvili.
Tsanava is a member of UNM’s political council who was accused of deceiving a foreign national seeking to obtain residency. He was remanded to pre-trial custody on 1 August — the UNM considered the allegation a provocation against it.
During the court hearing, Tsanava stated that after being detained at the SSG building, a ‘political official’ approached him and offered him ‘freedom and large sum of money’ in exchange for information about his friend, Khabeishvili.
‘They wanted me to record [Khabeishvili], to [secretly] listen to him, but to me, friendship and manhood come first’, Tsanava was quoted as saying by Formula TV.
‘It’s clear why they detained me’, he added.
On Monday, the UNM released a statement about Tsanava’s remarks, saying that if a blackmail investigation is not launched, it will confirm that their political council member is a ‘political prisoner’.
‘Lasha Tsanava stated that he was offered freedom and money in exchange for [...] collecting compromising material [...] which government propaganda intended to use to discredit Levan Khabeishvili and the party’, the statement read.
‘Although we do not believe that either the SSG or the Prosecutor’s Office will launch an [investigation], the United National Movement is fulfilling its legal and formal obligation by demanding an immediate inquiry and investigation into this matter’, the party added.
OC Media has contacted the SSG for comment, but as of publication, no response had been received.
Khabeishvili is one of the most prominent figures in UNM’s current leadership. He frequently appears on social media and opposition-aligned TV channels, speaking about alleged internal conflicts within the Georgian government, as well as suspected cases of corruption.
In mid-July, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze accused Khabeishvili of taking money in exchange for ‘spreading rumors’. Kobakhidze further claimed that Khabeishvili’s financial backers were former members of the ruling Georgian Dream party who had been ‘implicated in corruption’ and were forced to leave the team. The prime minister did not specify whom he was referring to.
After Tsanava’s detention, Khabeishvili described him as a ‘decent, hard-working man’ and a friend who has never abandoned him in any fight.
The UNM political council chair also stated that there was a campaign waged against him both by ‘internal and external enemies’, and that Tsanava’s detention would not ‘break’ him.
Before becoming chair of the political council, Khabeishvili served as the UNM’s chair from January 2023 to June 2024.
He cited deteriorating health as his reason for stepping down, following a severe beating during anti-government demonstrations in May of that year. At the time, UNM stated that Khabeishvili had been abducted and assaulted by the police.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
