Court Sends Five Organizers of October 4 Rally to Pretrial Detention
Tbilisi City Court Judge Lela Maridashvili has ordered pretrial detention for five organizers of the October 4 rally in Georgia’s capital, including opera singer Paata Burchuladze, opposition United National Movement (UNM) members Murtaz Zodelava and Irakli Nadiradze, Strategy Aghmashenebeli member Paata Manjgaladze, and former Georgian Armed Forces colonel Lasha Beridze.
The five were arrested in the early hours of October 5 after part of an election-day rally they had organized, with the stated aim of “peacefully overthrowing” the ruling Georgian Dream government, attempted, at their call, to occupy the presidential palace. The attempt failed as riot police dispersed the crowd, leading to hours of tension around Tbilisi’s Liberty Square. Zodelava and Nadiradze were arrested near Parliament, while Burchuladze was taken into custody from the hospital where he was admitted after the dispersal.
On October 6, the Prosecutor General’s Office charged them under several articles of the Criminal Code.
Burchuladze, Zodelava, and Nadiradze were charged with “attempted seizure or blockade of strategic and particularly important facilities, committed by a group” (Article 222²), “organization and leadership of group violence” (Article 225¹), and “incitement to change the constitutional order of Georgia through violence” (Article 317). Beridze was charged under Articles 222² and 225¹, while Manjgaladze was charged under Article 225¹. All face up to nine years in prison. The decision to place them in pretrial detention was made on October 7.
Late on October 6, the Interior Ministry announced the arrest of thirteen people for their involvement in the October 4 unrest at the presidential palace in Tbilisi. A ministry official said a search was underway for two other individuals as authorities continued to identify additional suspects.
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