Georgia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has announced that journalist Domenti Dito Chubinidze will be charged with treason, specifically sabotage, over claims that Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze secretly agreed to transfer part of the historic Davit Gareji monastery complex to Azerbaijan.
The dispute over Davit Gareji has been a longstanding point of contention between Georgia and Azerbaijan. In 2019, Azerbaijan temporarily restricted access to Udabno Monastery, part of the complex, before restoring access to Georgian visitors. The issue has also involved disagreements over border delimitation and the maps used to determine the border.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said on Thursday that its investigation had found no agreement with Azerbaijan on determining the state border in the section of the Davit Gareji monastery complex. It added that the legal procedures governing border delimitation and demarcation precluded the prime minister from unilaterally transferring territory to another state.
‘No agreement has been reached with the neighbouring state regarding the determination and establishment of the border in the section of the Davit Gareji Monastery Complex’, the agency said.
Chubinidze, a journalist for the newspaper Asaval-Dasavali, has repeatedly questioned the circumstances surrounding the death of Lazare Jorbenadze, who died in April 2026 in what was reportedly a suicide.
In an interview published weeks before his death, Jorbenadze claimed that Kobakhidze had signed a secret agreement with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to cede part of the Davit Gareji complex to Azerbaijan. He did not provide specific evidence to support the allegation.
Following Jorbenadze’s statements, a campaign against him reportedly unfolded on social media. After his death, Chubinidze said he did not believe the suicide explanation.
In a fifth letter sent from prison, published in September, former Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili also raised questions about Jorbenadze’s death, saying that the reasons behind it should be established. He further alleged that questions remained unanswered about several suicides that had occurred under the leadership of Kobakhidze and ruling party figure Mamuka Mdinaradze.
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In his ninth letter, published on Tuesday, Gharibashvili revisited the Davit Gareji border dispute, claiming that decisions made during former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s rule and the use of incorrect maps had weakened Georgia’s position. He said that, during his tenure as prime minister and defence minister, his government had taken steps to strengthen Georgia’s position in negotiations with Azerbaijan.
Following Gharibashvili’s September statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office issued a statement saying that Jorbenadze had died by suicide.
The prosecution alleges that Chubinidze linked Jorbenadze’s death to a revenge-motivated murder, claiming it was connected to information Jorbenadze had allegedly disclosed to Kobakhidze. It said Chubinidze had done so to lend credibility to the allegations about the purported transfer of territory.
The office said the alleged actions amounted to sabotage against the legitimate interests of the Georgian state and interfered with the normal functioning of a state agency and the government commission responsible for border delimitation and demarcation.
Chubinidze faces up to four years in prison if convicted. The agency said it would ask the court to impose imprisonment as a preventive measure while the case proceeds.
In a separate case, Georgian authorities detained opposition figure Giorgi Baramidze on treason charges over statements concerning claims that Georgian forces had executed Abkhazian prisoners of war.