According to Ivane Merabishvili, the tapes clearly indicate that Georgian criminal boss Tariel Potskhveria, who lives in Ukraine, told several criminal leaders in Tbilisi's Ortochala prison, which is home to about 4,000 inmates, that some non-governmental organizations and opposition parties would support the inmates if the riot succeeded.
Police stormed the prison Monday in an operation to prevent the escape attempt that officially claimed the lives of two inmates, but relatives of the prisoners disputed the number saying six inmates had been killed and 13 wounded.
President Mikheil Saakashvili told an emergency session of the National Security Council on March 27 that police had prevented a threat of mass disorder and destabilization.
He recalled a jailbreak from the same prison during the early 1990s and said that it was followed by a civil war and a military coup against late Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia in 1992.
