Opposition leader’s husband ‘abducted and forced to apologise’ over claim Ivanishvili’s son is gay

The husband of opposition leader Tina Bokuchava has published an apology video, allegedly after being abducted by masked men in Tbilisi. The apology concerned a claim he made in 2018 insinuating that Bidzina Ivanishvili’s son, Uta Ivanishvili, had had an affair with former Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze.

Bokuchava, the chair of the United National Movement (UNM) party, made the claims in a press briefing on Monday.

Her statement followed a post on Facebook the previous day by her husband, Kote Ioseliani, in which he apologised for his insinuations about the son of the ruling Georgian Dream party’s founder.

The UNM leader stated her husband was attacked by five individuals in Tbilisi’s Vake district, where they live with their three young children. She said the attackers failed to inflict serious physical injuries, but managed to force him into a car, blindfold him, tie his hands, and drive him to an unknown location.

Based on the distance traveled and the route taken, Bokuchava suggested that he was brought to the State Security Service (SGG) building, though she emphasised that pinpointing the location was difficult.

‘After taking him to the location, the abductors pressured him for eight hours, listing in detail his daily movements — including the location of our eldest child’s school and the kindergarten attended by our two-and-a-half-year-old twins’, Bokuchava said, adding that the individuals threatened Ioseliani, ‘including with threats to the safety of our three young children’.

She said she had tried to contact her husband throughout the night, but the abductors denied Ioseliani any access to a phone.

According to Bokuchava, Ioseliani’s statement about Ivanishvili’s son was ‘just a pretext’ — and that the real reason behind his abduction was to intimidate her as an opposition leader.

‘They figured they couldn’t get to me directly, so they chose to silence me through my family’, she added, but emphasised: ‘I will not be silenced, and I will always, always speak the truth’.

The statement for which Ioseliani apologised in Sunday’s video was made in June 2018 during a broadcast on the now-defunct TV channel Iberia. At the time, he was a member of the UNM’s political council.

In the programme, Ioseliani remarked that ‘rumors are circulating in the city that Bakhtadze is Uta Ivanishvili’s sweetheart’. Bakhatdze served as finance minister at the time, and was appointed prime minister later that month.

At the time the programme aired, there were already reports that Bakhtadze was being considered for the post of prime minister. The host asked Ioseliani how Georgian Dream’s founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, selected his appointees — and whether Bakhtadze was going to be appointed prime minister.

In response, Ioseliani brought up rumors about the alleged relationship between Uta Ivanishvili and Bakhtadze.

The host repeatedly asked Ioseliani what he meant by the term ‘sweetheart’.

‘[I mean] what “sweetheart” means. They can grow old together sweetly’, he added.

In response to a different rumor circulated a few months earlier, Bakhtadze had stated that he did not know any of Ivanishvili’s children.

Ioseliani’s statement drew criticism at the time, including from members of the UNM, who demanded that he apologise.

According to Netgazeti, Ioseliani posted a written apology on social media that same night, though the post is no longer publicly available.

‘I apologise if it came off as unethical or offended anyone’s feelings’, he wrote at the time, according to Netgazeti.

Social media users were puzzled by the fact that on Sunday — seven years after the controversial remark — Ioseliani apologised for his statement again, this time in video form.

‘In this video, I want to apologise for a comment I made several years ago about Uta Ivanishvili’, Ioseliani said in the 50-second clip, claiming that ‘over the years, I kept coming across Facebook posts discussing the issue’.

‘I sincerely apologise to Uta, because what I said was false, and I’ve never heard anything about his orientation’, he continued. Adding that ‘the only things I do know are that people speak highly of him, he’s a decent person, and they describe him as valiant’.

Ioseliani also stated that ‘it’s never too late to apologise’, adding, ‘certain circumstances emerged that compelled me to express this the way I did’.

Prior to publishing the video, Ioseliani’s last visible Facebook activity dated back to December 2020.OC Media reached out to the SSG for comment on Ioseliani’s alleged abduction.