The Georgian Prosecutor General's Office announced criminal prosecution of opposition leaders.

A criminal investigation into crimes against the state has been launched, with the prosecutor's office naming Georgia's third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and seven opposition leaders among the suspects. The charges include organizing protests after the 2024 elections, hostile activity against Georgia, and calls for the overthrow of the government.

As reported by the Caucasian Knot, in October, the ruling Georgian Dream party filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court of Georgia demanding that three parties be declared unconstitutional and banned: the United National Movement, the Coalition for Change, and Strong Georgia - Lelo. On November 4, the Constitutional Court of Georgia accepted for consideration a lawsuit to dissolve opposition parties.

The Georgian Prosecutor's Office has launched a criminal case against the third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and seven other main opposition leaders of the country, accusing them of "crimes against the state," the Novosti Georgia agency reported today.

According to the Prosecutor General of Georgia Georgiy Gvarakidze, Mikheil Saakashvili, Giorgi Vashadze (Strategy Agmashenebeli), Nika Gvaramia and Nika Melia (Akhali), Zurab Girchi Japaridze (Girchi - More Freedom), Elene Khoshtaria (Droa), Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze (Lelo) are suspected of sabotage and assistance to a foreign state in hostile activities against Georgia; financing actions directed against the constitutional order and the foundations of national security; calls for a violent change of the constitutional order or the overthrow of the government; organizing and participating in mass street riots and violence against the police, damage to property; coordinating and providing resources to groups involved in violence; Providing false information to foreign countries with the aim of imposing sanctions against Georgian citizens.

According to Gvarakidze, after the defeat of opposition parties in the parliamentary elections in the fall of 2024, opposition leaders "began to take to the streets under the pretext of falsifications in order to radicalize the process" and "publicly called for revolution, the overthrow of the government, picketing government buildings, and physical confrontation with law enforcement officers."

On November 28, 2024, at the call of the group's leaders, violent clashes with police began outside the parliament building, lasting six days.

The role of Saakashvili, who was in prison at the time, according to the prosecutor's office, was to "mobilize the masses of aggressively minded citizens." To this end, he "declared the need for struggle and resistance" through his social media pages.

"On November 28, 2024, at the call of the group's leaders, violent clashes with police officers began near the parliament building and lasted six days. As a result of the violent group's actions, 158 law enforcement officers were injured, including several seriously. They set fire to the parliament premises, causing significant damage to the building, and also set fire to special equipment belonging to the police; real estate and movable property, both state and private, were destroyed on Rustaveli Avenue," Gvarakidze said.

According to investigators, Elene Khoshtaria, Zurab Girchi Japaridze, and Giorgi Vashadze also committed a crime when they sought sanctions against government officials from Western countries. Gvarakidze claims that approximately 300 Georgian citizens were sanctioned due to "information and documentary materials" that opposition members passed on to "representatives of foreign states."

The Prosecutor General's Office will petition the court to grant bail to Lelo leaders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, Interpressnews reported.

"The Prosecutor's Office will petition the court within the timeframe established by law to grant bail to Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, and to set a pretrial hearing date for the remaining defendants," Gvarakidze noted.

The main thing about the persecution of protesters in Georgia

In September, Elene Khoshtaria, founder of the Droa party, which is part of the Coalition for Change, was arrested for damaging Kakha Kaladze's election banner, while three other Coalition leaders (Akhali party co-chairs Nika Melia and Nika Gvaramia and Girchi - More Freedom party leader Zurab Japaridze) were previously sentenced to prison for failure to appear In response to summonses from the temporary investigative commission created by the Georgian Dream party to investigate alleged crimes of the previous government, Giorgi Vashadze is also under arrest.

On March 12, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced Mikheil Saakashvili to nine years in prison, finding him guilty of embezzlement of budget funds. This charge was brought against Saakashvili back in 2014. At the hearing, the Penitentiary Service presented a certificate stating that Saakashvili did not wish to participate in the trial remotely and requested that the hearing be postponed until he recovered.

Saakashvili faced three to five years in prison for illegally crossing the border. He refused to attend the court hearing. The court sentenced him to 4.5 years in prison.