Georgian prosecutors announced on November 6 that they are filing criminal charges against eight leading opposition figures – ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, Strategy Agmashenebeli‘s Giorgi Vashadze, Ahali’s Nika Gvaramia and Nika Melia, Girchi – More Freedom’s Zurab Girchi Japaridze, Droa‘s Elene Khoshtaria, and Lelo for Georgia’s Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze over “crimes committed against the state.”
Prosecutors, however, clarified that the agency won’t be seeking pre-trial custody for the listed politicians, many of whom are already in jail, serving various sentences or pending trial.
The allegations include “sabotage, aiding a foreign country in hostile activities, funding activities directed against the Georgian constitutional order and national security foundations, calling towards violently changing the Georgian constitutional order or towards overthrowing the state government.” The announcement comes about a week after the ruling Georgian Dream party filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court, seeking to outlaw three major opposition forces.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, opposition leaders, acting in various groupings, engaged in “active actions to radicalize the street process” after the October 26, 2024 elections; shared information “against state interests” with foreign country representatives to create “artificial grounds” for international sanctions following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022; made calls that led to “violent confrontations” during the first six days of protests that began on November 28, 2024; and mobilized funds for “violent groups.”
The prosecutors say charges are as follows:
- Mikheil Saakashvili was charged under Article 317 of the Criminal Code, covering calls towards violently changing the constitutional order or overthrowing the state government. The offense foresees up to 3 years in prison.
- Zurab Girchi Japaridze and Giorgi Vashadze were charged under Article 318-1 and 319 of CC, covering sabotage and aiding a foreign country in hostile activities, punishable by 7 to 15 years of imprisonment.
- Elene Khoshtaria was charged under Articles 318-1, 319, and part 1 of 321 prima, covering sabotage, providing material resources for sabotage, and aiding a foreign country in hostile activities; punishable by 7 to 15 years in prison.
- Nika Gvaramia, Nika Melia, Mamuka Khazaradze, and Badri Japaridze were charged under Article 318-1, covering sabotage, punishable by 2 to 4 years in prison.
Prosecutors said they would request bail for Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, and a pre-trial hearing for the rest. All charged, except Lelo leaders, remain behind bars, including Nika Melia, Nika Gvaramia, Zurab Japaridze, and Giorgi Vashadze, who are serving sentences for boycotting Georgian Dream’s parliamentary commission, Elene Khoshtaria, who is awaiting ruling over writing protest messages on Georgian Dream’s campaign banner, as well as former President Mikheil Saakashvili, convicted on multiple charges related to his time in office.
While the two Lelo leaders were also convicted for boycotting the commission, they were released early after GD-elected President Mikheil Kavelashvili pardoned them, citing the party’s willingness to participate in the partially boycotted municipal elections.
Following the announcement, pro-government Imedi TV cited the Prosecutor’s Office as confirming they will not be seeking pre-trial custody as an additional preventive measure for those already in jail and would “await the court’s final decision on the presented charges.” Those jailed over boycotting the commission are expected to leave the prison by the end of the year.
Allegations
Prosecutor General Giorgi Gvarakidze, who announced the proceedings during the briefing, detailed the accusations against each politician.
He alleged that after the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Elene Khoshtaria, Zurab Girchi Japaridze, and Giorgi Vashadze, “against Georgia’s state interests,” provided information to representatives of “foreign states” about Georgia’s oil product imports and the military sphere to create “artificial grounds for imposing international sanctions” and spread false information that “Georgia’s airspace was being used for delivering Iranian combat drones to the Russian Federation.”
The prosecutor claimed that Khoshtaria, Japaridze, and Vashadze provided representatives of foreign states with lists of public officials and documentation “for the purpose of imposing sanctions,” which, he said, resulted in “up to 300 Georgian citizens” being sanctioned by foreign states.
Gvarakhidze further stressed that these three politicians, as well as Nika Gvaramia, Nika Melia, Mamuka Khazaradze, and Badri Japaridze, began efforts to “radicalize the street process” after their electoral defeat in 2024’s parliamentary elections and “publicly made calls for revolution, overthrowing the government, dismantling the government, picketing state buildings, and physically confronting law enforcement.”
Regarding the former President Mikheil Saakashvili, the Prosecutor’s Office asserts that through social media posts and a video address, he “publicly called on his supporters toward illegal and violent actions,” encouraging “aggressive resistance,” to “seize government buildings and to ‘topple the regime.’”
The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the protests near Parliament that erupted in late November of last year, “quickly exceeded the limits established by law,” citing what Gvarakidze called “organized clashes with police,” the throwing of ‘Molotov cocktails’ and incendiary substances, and the coordination of “violent groups” with opposition politicians.
Gvarakidze stated that searches of opposition offices, including those of the United National Movement, Droa, and Girchi – More Freedom, uncovered portable radio (walkie-talkie) devices, through which “violent groups acted in mutual agreement and systematically maintained communication with each other.”
According to him, in the initial days of protests, “violent groups caused health injuries to 158 employees of law enforcement agencies, including several who sustained serious injuries,” and “”set fire to rooms in the Parliament building, which significantly damaged the building, also set fire to special equipment owned by the police, destroyed state-owned and privately-owned property on Rustaveli Avenue.”
Gvarakidze also alleged that “in parallel, there was coordinated collection and delivery of financial resources and material resources for violent groups, in which, along with politicians, non-governmental organizations and specially created so-called ‘funds’ were actively involved, which in turn received funding from international donors.”
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