Georgian prison service suggests beating of ex-Investment Fund Chief Bachiashvili may have been staged

Georgia’s penitentiary service has suggested that the reported beating of Giorgi Bachiashvili, the former head of the Co-Investment Fund and a key figure in the so-called “cryptocurrency case” involving the ruling party founder and honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili, may have been staged.

In a statement on Thursday, the service said that “circumstances revealed so far raise reasonable doubts that certain penitentiary staff, prisoners under their influence, and inmate Bachiashvili may have acted in coordination”. It also questioned the decision to place Bachiashvili in the same cell as another inmate, K. Metreveli.

The incident took place on 11 July at Gldani Prison No 8. Bachiashvili’s lawyers said he was assaulted by a cellmate and later transferred for medical treatment to Tbilisi’s Vivamedi clinic before being returned to prison. In a letter released through his defence team, Bachiashvili accused senior penitentiary officials of pressuring him to disclose his bank and cryptocurrency account details linked to Ivanishvili, Georgia’s former prime minister and founder of the Co-Investment Fund.

The agency announced the head of Prison No 8, Davit Gogoberishvili, and his deputy, Giorgi Kemoklidze, resigned to “avoid hindering the investigation.” 

Bachiashvili, once a close associate of Ivanishvili, was convicted in absentia in March 2025 and sentenced to 11 years in prison for large-scale misappropriation and money laundering involving over $39 million in cryptocurrency. The verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeal on 12 August.

He was arrested in May after allegedly crossing into Georgia near the Red Bridge border area. His lawyers said he was abducted abroad and forcibly returned from abroad, claiming he faces a risk of torture. Bachiashvili insisted he was kidnapped, blindfolded, and flown back to Tbilisi without due process.