00:35, 3 October 2025

A Tbilisi court has arrested Zviad Kuprava.

Zviad Kuprava, a member of the Tbilisi City Council from the United National Movement, has been remanded in custody; he faces up to six years in prison.

As reported by the Caucasian Knot, on October 1, it became known that Georgian State Security Service security forces detained Zviad Kuprava, a member of the United National Movement party and a member of the Tbilisi City Council, accusing him of calling for the overthrow of the government.

On September 14, Levan Khabeishvili, a leader of the United National Movement, was remanded in custody on similar charges and bribery charges. Furthermore, the party's political council chairman, Murtaz Zodelava, was detained for resisting security forces. The National Movement links the detention of fellow party members to preparations for a protest on October 4—the day of local elections, which the UNM and its allies are boycotting. Khabeishvili himself positioned the rally as the beginning of a "peaceful revolution" and "Georgia's liberation day."

The court ordered pretrial detention for Zviad Kuprava, granting the prosecutor's motion. The opposition leader has been charged with calling for the overthrow of the government and resisting security forces (Articles 353 and 317 of the Criminal Code of Georgia), Formula TV reports.

The charges against Kuprava carry a sentence of up to six years in prison. According to the prosecution, the Tbilisi City Council member resisted security service officers during his arrest and called for the overthrow of the government in a video posted on social media on September 30.

In the video in question, Kuprava called the municipal elections scheduled for October 4 a "Russian special operation," Publika reports.

Earlier, eight opposition parties announced a boycott of the municipal elections scheduled for October 4. In July, President Mikheil Kavelashvili announced that he was prepared to pardon opposition leaders convicted of failing to appear at parliamentary commission meetings in exchange for their participation in municipal elections. Following this, the Lelo - Strong Georgia coalition abandoned its plan to boycott the elections. These elections will determine the political balance in Georgia for the coming years, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Municipal Elections in Georgia on October 4, 2025".

The "Caucasian Knot" has compiled materials on preparations for the municipal elections and protests by opposition supporters on the thematic page "Georgia: Elections Amid Protests".

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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/415963