In his latest letter from prison, former Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili again praised his own tenure in government. He cited his handling of a dispute over the Davit Gareji Monastery complex with Azerbaijan in 2019 and claimed the recent corruption charges he received after he began publishing his letters were ‘politically motivated’.
Gharibashvili is serving a prison sentence in a high-profile money laundering case. Starting in August 2026, he has been publishing letters from prison in which he has criticised his former Georgian Dream colleagues and claimed he was forced to confess to a crime he did not commit.
The new charges were brought on 24 August, after Gharibashvili began publishing letters from prison criticising the ruling Georgian Dream party and its leadership. The Prosecutor’s Office accused him of accepting a particularly large bribe as part of a group acting by prior agreement, in connection with alleged corruption during his time as Prime Minister.
In his ninth letter published on Tuesday, Gharibashvili claims his case is politically motivated and based on defamation. He also discusses his 19 October court hearing and outlines what he says were his achievements as Defence Minister and Prime Minister, including the modernisation of the military and efforts to strengthen Georgia’s position in the dispute over the Davit Gareji monastery complex on the border with 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.
Gharibashvili says that, during his first term as Prime Minister, he sought to obtain original maps that he believed were necessary to strengthen Georgia’s position in negotiations over the border. He claims that little progress had been made on the issue before he returned to government as Defence Minister.
‘Under my coordination, a working group was established at the Defence Ministry. We reconstructed the full picture and examined criminal acts committed in the past’, Gharibashvili wrote.
He claimed that under the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili, members of the state commission dealing with the dispute ‘sought to alter’ Georgia’s borders through the use of incorrect maps.
Gharibashvili says he presented proposals prepared by specialists from the Defence Ministry’s cartography department to Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili. He credits Ivanishvili’s efforts with enabling businessperson Davit Khidasheli to bring original maps to Tbilisi. He also says a criminal investigation was launched into the alleged illegal concession of territory around the Davit Gareji site.
According to Gharibashvili, these steps significantly strengthened Georgia’s position. He adds that the Georgian Church was fully informed of the process and that Archimandrite Kirion, from the Davit Gareji monastery, was involved from the outset.
He also says he renewed the state commission responsible for the issue by appointing new members and that the legal proceedings continued until the end of 2023. International consulting firms had also been selected to provide legal assistance, he claims.
‘Azerbaijan is our friendly, strategic partner and neighbouring state. I hope that negotiations will continue in this spirit and that the Davit Gareji issue will be resolved fairly’, Gharibashvili wrote.
The former prime minister also devoted much of the letter to his record in government, listing what he describes as improvements to Georgia’s defence capabilities.
‘If anyone knows what I did for the army during my time as Defence Minister and Prime Minister, it is, first and foremost, our army’, Gharibashvili wrote.
Gharibashvili also cites the 2020 parliamentary elections, claiming that Georgian Dream received 85%–90% of the votes at military polling stations during his tenure as Defence Minister. He presents this result as evidence of the military’s attitude towards his work.
He concludes by reiterating that he believes the case against him is politically motivated, describing the allegations as an insult to Georgia, the government, and the ruling party.
Gharibashvili served as Prime Minister from 2013–2015 and 2021–2024, and as Defence Minister from 2019–2021. After leaving the premiership in January 2024, he became Georgian Dream chair, stepping down and leaving politics in April 2025.
Investigations into former officials from his tenure began in summer 2025 and eventually reached Gharibashvili, who was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty in a plea deal in January 2026. On 24 August, after resuming his public statements from prison, he was charged with further corruption offences carrying a potential sentence of 11–15 years.