Gegelia to Gorduladze: State Security Service Listened to Ilia II, Not Just Other Senior Church Hierarchs

Foreign Affairs Secretary of "Lelo-Strong Georgia" Grigol Gegelia responded on social media to Georgian Dream deputy Archil Gorduladze. At a session of the Constitutional Court, Gordulaze stated that it is "absolute lies and disinformation" that the State Security Service listens to representatives of the Orthodox Church. According to him, "the spreading of such lies is outrageous and has crossed all boundaries".

According to Gegelia, this is a regime that also listened to Ilia II, not just various senior hierarchs of the Church. The politician published two excerpts, which concern Ilia II, from files leaked by State Security Service employee Akaki Nemsadze.

According to the first excerpt, on September 25, 2019, Ilia II contacted his sister, nun Natalia Shioshvili, from the patriarchal residence next to the Jvari Monastery in Mtskheta. He told her he had seen a bad dream and urgently needed to check his personal safe located in the Patriarchate. Later Shioshvili told the Patriarch that the safe showed no signs of damage. The recording adds a note that, according to church canon, patriarchs keep a will in their personal safe, which is opened after their death.

The second recording is dated April 18, 2020. Ilia II contacted nun Natalia Ghudushauri and asked why church bells were not ringing and whether there was some problem. Ilia II replied that the bells should have been rung as usual and there was no need to worry about this.

According to Gegelia, there are many such recordings. He said the fact of eavesdropping is confirmed by the clergy themselves, who recognized the authenticity of their own conversations. On behalf of the Patriarchate, Press Spokesperson Father Andria Jaghmaidze had called for an investigation into possible surveillance.

Gegelia writes: "This is a regime that from the very beginning aimed to weaken the Orthodox Church, which is why it organized the so-called cyanide case, because Ivanishvili's goal was to weaken and destroy all centers of power: the Church, civil society and political parties".