Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Georgian patriarch Ilia II visiting Moscow

ilia ii moscow 2013-01-20
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk (left), welcoming Georgian Patriarch Ilia II (right) in Moscow Jan. 20, 2013. (Photo published by the Russian Church.)

TBILISI, DFWatch — Georgia’s Patriarch Illia II on Sunday left for Russia to receive an award. His visit will also include a meeting with the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

“I want to ask you that I leave for Moscow and we will have a conversation on very

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Escaped justice minister accused in Cartu case

zurab adeishvili
Ex Justice Minister Zurab Adeishvili is believed to be in hiding in Belgium. All his four passports have been revoked. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch — Former Justice Minister Zurab Adeishvili has been detained in absentia for things he did to Cartu Bank, which has links to current Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Five other persons who are also implicated in the case were released on bail.

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Body of Georgian mafia boss sent back to Moscow

Aslan Usoyan
Aslan Usoyan, or Ded Hassan (“Grandpa Hassan”), was shot and killed in Moscow January 16, 2013.

TBILISI, DFWatch — The body of a mafia boss who was killed in Moscow was on a plane to Georgia to be buried, but had to be sent back after Tbilisi refused to let it in.

Aslan Usoyan, better known as Ded Hassan (Grandpa Hassan), a 76 year-old mafia boss was shot in

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Prison torture whistleblower released on bail

vladimer bedukadz 2013-01-19
Vladimer Bedukadze was released on bail January 19, 2013. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch — The man who published the videos that spurred the prisoner abuse scandal was today released on USD 1 200 bail.

Tbilisi City Court Saturday evening released Vladimer Bedukadze, the former employee of Prison No 8, where the majority of torture cases

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Political prisoners were blessed by the patriarch

190 political prisoners were released last Sunday. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch — Political prisoners, who were released last Sunday when the new amnesty law came into force, visited the Georgian Patriarch, who blessed them.

The prisoners came to Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi to attend the prayer for the Orthodox holiday of Epiphany,

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Prisoner abuse whistleblower returns to Georgia

Vladimer Bedukadze blew the whistle on the abuse of prisoners in Georgia. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch — Police in Georgia Thursday morning detained former prison guard Vladimer Bedukadze at Tbilisi airport, as he arrived from Istanbul.

Bedukadze last year published five video clips documenting prisoner abuse, which caused a public outrage that led

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