On March 6, 2020, “TV Pirveli” released a secretly recorded phone conversation in which, according to the journalist, Bera Ivanishvili — the son of Bidzina Ivanishvili, former chairman of “Georgian Dream” — and Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili discuss an incident involving violence against a school student over a comment posted on social media. According to the report, the head of the Special State Protection Service, Anzor Chubinidze, also participates in the conversation, and the recording suggests that Bera Ivanishvili and Irakli Garibashvili separately discuss a plan of retaliation with him.

According to the recording, Bera Ivanishvili tells Irakli Garibashvili that Anzor Chubinidze’s punitive group intimidated the minor and forced him to apologize in front of his family and neighbors, in a humiliating environment: “He’ll go to school today wetting himself,” says, presumably, Bera Ivanishvili. Irakli Garibashvili, presumably, replies: “He couldn’t have gone to school, man.”

According to the recording, Bera Ivanishvili tells Garibashvili that Bidzina Ivanishvili knows everything about the retaliation. The journalist says that an anonymous source provided them with four recordings. Journalists do not know when the audio was made, but after linking several facts, they assumed that the conversation was recorded in 2016.

Because of this story, on March 7 a small-scale protest was held in front of the Government Administration: “Insult Bera.” The participants demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili. A protest was also held in front of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s business center.

People gathered again with the same demand on March 9 near the Government Administration. They also demanded legal responsibility for the individuals featured in the report aired by TV Pirveli.

Protesters individually wrote letters saying: “Resign, Hakim Pasha,” and submitted them to the Government Administration. Since 2014, Garibashvili had been referred to as “Hakim Pasha,” after he joked in parliament that he was the one who uploaded the “Hakim Pasha” videos. That year, a video appeared on YouTube showing a photo collage of the deceased Zurab Zhvania and Raul Usupov, titled Saakashvili killed Mr. Zurab Zhvania. The author pointed to what appeared to be physical injuries on the bodies. The video was uploaded by a user named hakim pasha, who had never uploaded any other content to YouTube.

On the third day after the broadcast of the alleged conversation between Irakli Garibashvili, Bera Ivanishvili, and Anzor Chubinidze, on March 9, the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia announced that it was launching an investigation under the article concerning “unauthorized recording of a private conversation.” The agency did not mention initiating an investigation regarding the content of the conversation itself.