Georgia’s fifth President condemns ‘regime of fear’ after opposition figure’s ‘apology under duress’

Georgia’s fifth President, Salome Zourabichvili, has criticised the Georgian Dream government, describing it as unstable and repressive, after a former opposition figure issued what his family claims was a coerced public apology.

In a video message posted on Facebook on Monday, Zourabichvili condemned the renewed apology by Kote Ioseliani - a former member of the United National Movement’s political council - as “evidence of a government gripped by fear.” “This is only a sign of weakness,” she said, adding “a person expressed an opinion, perhaps incorrect, eight years ago, and today he is being punished because it concerned the family of the ‘Naked King.’”

The Naked King reference alludes to The Emperor’s New Clothes, a 19th-century fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen often used as a metaphor for truth being ignored by those unwilling to speak out.

Zourabichvili accused the authorities of engaging in systematic intimidation. “The regime shows us every day how scared it is… It no longer knows what to do to intimidate people, threaten them, prohibit them not only from speaking, but even from writing things on Facebook,” she said, likening the current situation in Georgia to that of North Korea. “I think we have already reached the level of North Korea - I don’t know if there is even this level of control there.”

Her comments follow controversy over Ioseliani’s latest statement, posted on Sunday, in which he again apologised for a 2018 remark he made that allegedly suggested a romantic relationship between Uta Ivanishvili - the son of billionaire and ruling party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili - and a well-known public figure.

Though he had already publicly retracted the claim in 2018, Ioseliani’s wife, Tina Bokuchava - the acting chairwoman of the United National Movement - said on Monday that he had been abducted and held for several hours before being forced to apologise again.

“Throughout this time, he was being threatened - including threats to the safety of his children. I tried to contact my husband all night, but they did not give him access to the phone,” Bokuchava said during a briefing at the party’s headquarters.

the GD officials dismissed the allegations as “a senseless spectacle.” Authorities have summoned Ioseliani for questioning.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Ioseliani wrote “for something I had already apologised for once, there was no moral or principled compromise in apologising a second time - especially since it determined the safety of my children.” He added: “The Russian, vile, treacherous, and anti-Georgian regime must be destroyed, and in this regard I still stand where I have always stood.”

Zourabichvili warned that such tactics were a “clear sign” of a government lacking public confidence and moral authority. “There is no regime, no matter how dictatorial, that has internal orientation and popular support and behaves like this. This is truly their verdict.”