New evidence in the election fraud case - NGOs publish information provided by Soso Gogashvili, former vice head of the SSG

A large-scale scheme to mobilize voters by illegal means  in favor of the ruling party - non-governmental organizations publish a report presenting information provided by Soso Gogashvili, a former high-ranking SSG official currently in prison.
 
Transparency International and Fair Elections say it is highly likely that state agencies, including law enforcement, are being used for political party purposes.

"According to this information, representatives of the ruling party, using the services of various state agencies, have allegedly offered specific individuals the cancellation of probation, early release from prison, restoration of suspended or revoked driving licenses, mitigation [reclassification] of charges in a current criminal case, improved conditions of serving a sentence, deferment of military service for conscripts, etc.

The report presents information provided by whistleblower Ioseb Gogashvili, former deputy head of the State Security Service and one of the former top officials of the ruling Georgian Dream party. The stated circumstances have been verified to the fullest extent possible, as well as confirmed by proven facts in media materials," the statement reads.

Transparency International-Georgia and Fair Elections examined documents that allegedly included email address correspondence securgd@gmail.com, 2018-2019, and documents dating back to 2020 created by the ruling party, Georgian Dream. In addition, some of the data in the documents were verified through publicly available information.

The study also names the specific names of the then Deputy Minister of Justice George Pataridze and the head of the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexander Khodjevanishvili.

"From the information requested from the National Probation Agency, it is evident that during the 2018 presidential elections (especially in the months before and after the second round), the number of persons who had their probation revoked and their right to drive restored increased significantly. Moreover, in reports by various television stations, many persons confirmed the circumstances mentioned in the documents.

In order to win the heart of the voter, the above-mentioned advantages or benefits were offered informally and in circumvention of legal procedures. As a result, a large-scale bribery of citizens at the expense of public funds by state officials and the ruling party was revealed. In this process, signs of alleged official and systemic criminality of individual officials were highlighted.

As it became clear from the documents, the executors of this system, together with the ruling party, were probably the then Deputy Minister of Justice George Pataridze and head of the Main Inspectorate of the Interior Ministry Alexander Khodjevanishvili.

In addition, the ruling party was very likely to collect information about supporters of opposition parties from non-public sources, including being interested in what influence they could be exerted using various state resources. An example of this is the letters sent in 2018 on behalf of the then deputy chairman of the Marneuli City Council, Mamuka Naveriani.

As seen in the 2020 documents, the ruling party, together with the SSG, compiled political dossiers on employees of state-funded organizations and relied on this information in the implementation of personnel policies. In particular, the documents contained political profiles and recommendations of principals of public schools, heads of educational resource centers, and employees of various state-funded organizations.

Political discrimination against public school principals is a typical example. From fall 2020 through August 2021, the Department of Education and Science had not appointed at least 112 public school principals to serve as acting principals after their terms expired. Of the 112, 95 principals were evaluated based on documents provided by a whistleblower. The Education Resource Centers dismissed 29 principals, the ruling party dismissed 80 principals, and the State Security Service dismissed 89. It is clear from this data that the evaluations of the SSG and the ruling party were decisive in firing principals, which, if confirmed, is an illegal and completely unacceptable practice.

In addition to the evaluations of school principals, the documents provided by the whistleblower contained profiles of employees of various budgetary organizations, the general situation in the departments, and political sentiments as of August 2020.

The materials contained a document called "Referance cards", according to which the regional leaders of Georgian Dream, usually on behalf of the party leaders (Irakli Kobakhidze, Kakha Kaladze as well as the regional secretary - Dimitri Samkharadze) wrote a statement and asked for the purposes of election campaigning to the election headquarters the participation of various law-enforcement officers. Under Georgian law, a law enforcement officer is obliged to protect his political neutrality. He should refrain from publicly expressing his attitude towards any political party. He is prohibited from political and electoral activities," reads the study.