Judicial reform protest leaders are facing lawsuits for claiming that Israeli businessman Michael Mirilashvili is tied to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary group, Georgian criminal organizations, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the mogul’s lawyers announced on Thursday.
Media consultant and former Ehud Olmert consultant Lior Chorev, entrepreneur and Hi-tech protest leader Ami Dror, and entrepreneur and alleged anti-reform advertising backer Ilan Shiloah and other activists have been sent warning letters from Mirilashvili’s attorneys before pursuing defamation charges.
Attorneys Shlomi Weinberg and Arkadiy Eligulashvili warned that the activists could be sued for 150,000 NIS for each offending social media post. The lawyers said that Mirilashvili would donate the winnings to charity. The letter cautions that to avoid the lawsuit the activists need to publish notices of correction and apology and to provide financial compensation, which would also be donated to charity.
Mirilashvili’s legal team said that the defaming claims, made on social media, stem from the belief that the Georgian-born businessman is the owner of Channel 14. They said that Yitzchak Mirilashvili is the controlling shareowner and that Mirilashvili has never visited or communicated with anyone from the outlet. Channel 14 is an Israeli news outlet with a right-leaning political orientation, and has published pro-judicial reform content.
“Warning letters were issued on behalf of our client, Mr. Michael Mirilashvili, concerning the serious and inflammatory defamation disseminated against him on social media. These false claims have severely tarnished his reputation,” Weinberg and Eligulashvili said. “It is time to put an end to the campaign of hatred and slander on social networks, one that includes the dissemination of baseless facts, presenting distortions of the truth as undeniable truths, and making false accusations and misrepresentations masquerade as facts—matters completely divorced from the truth.”
Ilan Shiloah wrote on Twitter that Mirilashvili was silencing those expressing their views.
Several accusations against Mirilashvili
Mirilashvili representatives said that while Russian mercenary chief Prigozhin had worked for him briefly in the 1990s at several St. Petersburg restaurants, he hadn’t had a connection with Prigozhin in the past 25 years. Prigozhin, according to Wagner-affiliated telegram channels and Russian media, was killed in a suspicious plane crash on Wednesday night only a few months after he led his mercenary group in a short-lived mutiny against his rivals in the Russian Defense Ministry and military leadership.
The activists also leveled claims of Mirilashvili’s involvement in murder and kidnapping. Mirilashvili had been convicted and imprisoned in 2001 for alleged involvement in an incident in which the businessman’s father had been kidnapped, and Russian authorities claimed that some men alleged to have been involved in the incident were killed by Mirilashvili’s associates.
Mirilashvili’s account held that the kidnappers had released his father voluntarily through contact with their criminal associate. Mirilashvili said that those spreading falsehoods and distorting his past disregarded the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, which in 2008 had ruled that his trial had been unfair.
קורא במעריב שמיראשווילי החליט להשתיק את מובילי המחאה ולאיים עליהם ועלי בתביעות השתקה.פה זה לא רוסיה עדיין.פה עדיין לא רוצחים אנשים שמביעים את עמדותיהם.נלחם על חופש הביטוי והדעה.פושעי מקלדת”: למיליארדר נמאס וזה הצעד שלו נגד “פעילים במחאה” | פרסום ראשון https://t.co/TI6LR5e96t
— אילן שילוח (@IlanShiloah) August 24, 2023
Mirilashvili, who immigrated with his family to Israel in 2009, said that since his aliyah he had faced “groundless” attacks against him on social media and by media outlets.
“These lies and attacks have intensified due to recent events in Israel, leaving me with no choice but to confront all forms of online slander. Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous individuals in Israel who spare no effort to further their interests and agendas, including spreading falsehoods,” said Mirilashvili. “I hope that my case serves as a lesson and prevents other good people, regardless of their status, origin, or political views, from falling victim to these online attackers.”
“These lies and attacks have intensified due to recent events in Israel, leaving me with no choice but to confront all forms of online slander. Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous individuals in Israel who spare no effort to further their interests and agendas, including spreading falsehoods…”
Michael Mirilashvili, Israeli businessman believed to have ties to Wagner Group
Mirilashvili is the owner of Watergen and head of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.
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