Hieromonk Iona’s Release as Mysterious as His Detention

Aleksi Bezhanishvili

On February 11th the head of analytical department of Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) Shota Utiashvili held a special briefing on the release of the hieromonk kidnapped in Abkhazia: “We are working intensively to release father Iona. I am glad to let you know that our works are productive. Father Iona is released and transferred to the territory controlled by Georgian side.”

According to him, hieromonk was transferred from Abkhazia to Zugdidi on February 10th and now he is in Tbilisi. Utiashvili thanked all officials of the Ministry who were involved in the release of the hieromonk.

According to the information agency Pirveli, Georgian hieromonk Ioana (Mamuka Maisuradze) was detained in Abkhazia for 25 days and 100 000 dollars was requested as a ransom for his release. According to MIA, Georgian side did not negotiate with the kidnappers and the representatives of MIA released Iona as a result of a special operation.

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili met the hieromonk Iona Maisuradze. The President congratulated him with the release and noted that “he has started significant good works for Georgia.”

“We were very worried about you. This is not the first case of kidnapping and unfortunately it might not be the last until the bandit illegality continues there. The main thing today is that you are here. We have not stopped thinking about you for a minute. On the other hand, not only we did not pay ransom, they received the adequate answer (however, I cannot talk about the details). Not everybody but part of these people realized and they will tell others that we will always react when the freedom, lives and security of our citizens are endangered. We might not be big and rich country but our citizens are our main treasure. We will protect them with our teeth and will use every mean for this. This illegality is a big tragedy but there is a big joy that you are free,” – Saakashvili stated.

Georgian hieromonk thanked the President and the representatives of MIA and talked about the details of his detention. As he noted the reason of his arrest and abuse was his Georgian nationality.

“God bless everybody who directly participated and headed this development. I will remember these days for my whole life. I will remember that my country and the President stand with me. One understands this when found in turmoil like that, when you are captured, abused and suddenly someone comes to save you. This joy cannot be explained with words. I am still under shock – everything happened in the morning… I felt that when the guys of Constitutional Security Department met me and took me out of the forest. Mr. President, I would like to tell you that our country is an established state. Your actions testify that. Thanks God that we have someone like you,” – hieromonk noted.

According to conflict scientist Paata Zakareishvili, there is a contradictory information regarding the release of hieromonk Iona. Therefore, Zakareishvili finds it hard to assess what happened in reality.

“I talked to Abkhazians and according to them, hieromonk Iona was not detained by Abkhazians. However, father Iona states that it was so. It is weird that this special operation was conducted so that nobody in Abkhazia understood what was going on. Opposition is silent as well. They might be playing the hypocrite and do not want to admit that the Georgian special services really performed everything. However, their story is that in reality father Iona was hiding somewhere and this is a staged performance or that he was detained by Russian special services and Georgians negotiated with them,” – Zakareishvili stated.

If we analyze the words of hieromonk Iona when he says “Constitutional Security Department guys took me out of the forest,” we can think that the special operation took place in some forest. Particularly, that the kidnappers were located in some region or forest of Abkhazia. However, so far it is hard to express any assumptions.

According to the head of Gali regional department of de facto Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Abkhazia, “Georgian hieromonk Iona (Mamuka Maisuradze) has never been to Abkhazian territory.”

“In the first place, Georgian MIA cannot conduct any operation in our territory. Secondly, information on the presence of hieromonk in Abkhazian territory is not confirmed. I am sure that he was in the territory of Georgia and if the MIA of this country managed to release him, this is their right. However, information that the hieromonk was in the territory of Abkhazia is a deliberate misinformation,” – Koghinia stated.

Photo Was Disseminated by the Information Agency Pirveli