Latest news with #GiorgiGakharia
Civil.ge
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Civil.ge
Lelo, Gakharia's For Georgia Agree to Cooperate for Local Elections
Opposition parties Lelo/Strong Georgia and For Georgia, which, unlike most of the opposition groups, are running in the upcoming local elections slated for October 4, have agreed to cooperate ahead of the vote, signing a relevant memorandum on July 14. 'We must exclude competition between us,' said Berdia Sichinava of ex-PM Giorgi Gakharia's For Georgia party after the signing of the memorandum. 'We will try to agree on common candidates for mayors,' he said, adding that they would aim for 'non-partisan' and 'neutral' figures, or alternatively, joint party nominees. He noted the same approach would apply to majoritarian candidates as well. 'Today, we have agreed on the basic principles of cooperation,' said Irakli Kupradze of Lelo/Strong Georgia. 'This cooperation is exactly the key demand our citizens have,' he added, holding up the memorandum, which he described as a 'compromised' document that he added 'reflects' the citizens' call for unity. Most opposition parties have pledged to boycott the local elections, viewing participation as a betrayal of the resistance movement and opting instead for non-cooperation. In contrast, Lelo and Gakharia's For Georgia say they aim to challenge the ruling Georgian Dream in every possible arena, believing they have a chance to win in major cities, including Tbilisi, where support for the ruling party is relatively weaker than in the regions. Earlier, Aleko Elisashvili, leader of the Citizens' party and member of the Lelo-led coalition, suggested in an interview with Palitranews the possibility of uniting the opposition around Georgia's fifth president, Salome Zurabishvili, as a potential mayoral candidate in Tbilisi. Zurabishvili leans toward supporting a boycott. 'There are no elections!' Salome Zurabishvili said in her July 9 remarks, calling the vote 'only a topic' planted by the Georgian Dream to divide the opposition and pit them against each other. She instead called for greater unity among opposition parties and an expanded protest movement through her Resistance Platform. Lelo/Strong Georgia – now comprising only Lelo and the Citizens' party after Ana Dolidze's For People and Freedom Square left the coalition – announced its decision to run in the elections on July 5. The move prompted three members of the party's political council to resign from leadership, though they remain party members. Lelo leaders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze are among those currently jailed for refusing to testify before the Tsulukiani Commission, a Georgian Dream parliament's temporary body tasked with investigating the alleged misdemeanor by former officials. For Georgia's leader Giorgi Gakharia, a former Interior Minister and Prime Minister under the Georgian Dream, is currently abroad. Prosecutors are investigating his role in the Chorchana checkpoint case and the 2019 crackdown on the 'Gavrilov's Night' rally, both of which occurred during his tenure as Interior Minister. Also Read:
Civil.ge
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Civil.ge
Prosecutors Revive Gavrilov's Night Probe Citing 2024 ECtHR Ruling
The area in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi was cordoned off on July 11 in what prosecutors say are 'investigative actions' over the 2019 'Gavrilov's Night' rally dispersal, a year after the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on the matter. In May 2024, ECtHR ruled that authorities failed to properly investigate the incident, violating the procedural limb of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits torture. The renewed scrutiny, however, comes as Georgian Dream authorities turn up the heat on Giorgi Gakharia, the leader of the opposition For Georgia party, who served as interior minister during the dispersal before his promotion as prime minister the same year. 'In light of the Strasbourg court ruling and recommendations, and to ensure an effective investigation with the involvement of victims, investigative actions are being carried out on Rustaveli Avenue,' the Prosecutor's Office said in a July 11 statement . Officers temporarily blocked the avenue for investigative activities, which the Prosecutor's office added aim to 'fully reconstruct the crime scene and identify alleged offenders.' The Prosecutor's Office also noted that Georgia 'was instructed to conduct specific investigative steps, including those involving victims, to determine whether the Interior Ministry's operation was properly planned and whether excessive force was used.' 240 people, including 80 police officers and over 30 journalists, including 's Guram Muradov, were injured during the June 20-21, 2019, violent dispersal of the rally that erupted in response to the controversial address of Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov from the Speaker's Chair of the Georgian Parliament during the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO). Some have lost their eye. The dispersal, which took place during Gakharia's tenure as interior minister, was the first major case in which the ruling Georgian Dream party faced backlash for mass police abuse. Georgian prosecutors opened the probe in 2019, but the investigation has been protracted, facing criticism over failure or delays in granting those injured a victim status, and flawed efforts to identify and punish those responsible. 'Chorchana topic didn't fully work, so plan B has been initiated,' Kakha Kemoklidze, Gakharia's party colleague, wrote on Facebook in response to investigative actions. Kemoklidze referred to the recent criminal probe that Gakharia is facing regarding the 2019 tensions at the Chorchana checkpoint, adjacent to the occupation line with the Tskhinvali region. Although Georgian Dream endorsed Gakharia as Prime Minister in 2019 following the Gavrilov's Night dispersal and the Chorchana crisis, new and revived investigations have surfaced as former party colleagues increasingly revisit his legacy. The issues were raised within the Tsulukiani Commission, a body established by the Georgian Dream parliament to investigate alleged crimes committed by former officials. Among the questions posed to Gakhaira was whether he had authorized the use of rubber bullets, which resulted in people losing their eyes. Gakharia denied doing so in his first testimony , suggesting that police may have acted independently in self-defense. He added that once he became aware of the use of rubber bullets, he instructed that they be used only as a last resort to protect officers' lives. While for years Gakharia has owned up to the dispersal, the former prime minister recently hinted at the involvement of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili. Speculations about Ivanishvili's role grew after video footage from June 20, 2019, showed Anzor Chubinidze, head of the State Protection Service and a close Ivanishvili ally, moving among riot police and appearing to oversee parts of the operation. Gakharia half-confirmed Chubinidze's involvement in his second, remote testimony to the Commission, as he was responding to questions on why diplomats, including the German ambassador, were not evacuated from Parliament during the unrest. 'Unfortunately, the then-leadership of the State Security Service did not recommend such action,' he said. 'Ambassadors are individuals under state protection. Instead of the head of the State Protection Service running around on the front lines and appearing in videos, it would have been better if he had ensured the ambassadors' safety.' Former Georgian judge at the ECtHR, Nona Tsotsoria, noted in a Facebook post that the 2024 ruling has been appealed and is pending before the court's Grand Chamber, which she said is not yet 'subject to implementation.' Tsotsoria thus questioned the Prosecutor's Office's sudden 'determination' to reopen the investigation after six years, suggesting the move is intended to 'exploit the ECtHR ruling for political purposes.' Georgian Dream has implied that the revived investigation may lead to Gakharia's accountability. 'We have heard more than once that he takes full responsibility for everything that happened and that he was the one giving orders,' GD MP Archil Gorduladze said . 'Now, he will have to assume full responsibility.' Gakharia currently stays abroad after leaving for Germany amid GD's intensified crackdown on opposition, including the jailings of six political leaders. Also Read:
Civil.ge
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Civil.ge
Gakharia Defends Chorchana Checkpoint with Tsulukiani Commission, Alleges ‘Sabotage'
Giorgi Gakharia again defended building a checkpoint near the Tskhinvali occupation line in 2019, and implied other Georgian Dream officials might have sabotaged the plan for more checkpoints, as he remotely testified from Germany to the Tsulukiani Commission for the second time on July 2. Tsulukiani Commission, an investigative body in Georgian Dream's one-party parliament with steadily creeping scope to probe alleged crimes of former officials, resummoned ex-GD Prime Minister and current opposition party leader Gakharia to testify mid-June, two months after his initial testimony . Repeated summons came as Georgian prosecutors started probing ex-PM as part of a 'sabotage' investigation over posting a police checkpoint near the Tbilisi-controlled Chorchana village adjacent to the Tskhinvali occupation line in 2019, when he was the interior minister. Gakharia offered to testify online since he was abroad. Tea Tsulukiani, former Justice and Culture Minister who chairs the Commission, initially declined to allow remote participation but ultimately agreed . Gakharia's decision to testify comes in contrast with other opposition leaders, who chose to boycott, citing their rejection of parliament's legitimacy. Seven individuals, including six opposition party leaders, have been sentenced to months in jail for defying Commission summonses. The key issue during the two-and-a-half-hour questioning—marked by bitter exchanges and mutual accusations—was the Chorchana episode. The Commission had already questioned Gakharia on the matter during his April testimony. At the time, the former Prime Minister faced accusations from Commission members about failing to coordinate the move with other officials, and about the move ultimately backfiring by prompting Tskhinvali to open additional checkpoints and further push the occupation line into Tbilisi-controlled territory. During the June 2 testimony, Gakharia again defended his 2019 decision, coming just weeks before he was promoted as prime minister. He said establishing the outpost was necessary to ensure that both Georgian representatives and those from the EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) could conduct patrols without obstruction and to 'establish effective control over Georgian territory.' According to Gakharia, work on the plan began in late 2018 and involved both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service (SSSG). The plan called for the creation of seven checkpoints, with the first installed on August 24, 2019. The EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) was also informed about the plan, Gakharia claimed. Gakharia noted he became Prime Minister on September 8—two weeks after the installation, by which, against the original plan, Russian forces established checkpoints at the coordinates initially selected by the Georgian side. 'Somehow, surprisingly, Russian Federation checkpoints turned up on the coordinates where Georgian checkpoints were supposed to be,' Gakharia said, implying that Vakhtang Gomelauri, who succeeded him as Interior Minister, and then-State Security Service head Grigol Liluashvili may have undermined the original plan. Gomelauri, who quit his post as Interior Minister late in May, testified to the prosecution two weeks after his resignation over the Chorchana episode. He told the press before his testimony that he was against opening the Chorchana checkpoint in 2019. 'Time will come when a special commission will be established, which will figure out why the completion of the plan that was meant to take full control of this road was obstructed? What did [Vakhtang Gomelauri], who at the time had moved into the Interior Ministry, do to stop this process and not bring the plan to an end, or what [Grigol Liluashvili], appointed at the time at the SSSG or as acting head as a deputy, did when all these points [now Russia-controlled] were supposed to be Georgian checkpoints?' – Gakharia told the Commission. 'At a certain moment, when this transition phase was underway, this plan was sabotaged.' Gakharia described the failed implementation of the plan as 'the first serious conflict' with the State Security Service leadership, arguing that had the original plan been fully executed, it would have led to the installation of Georgian—not Russian—checkpoints. Tea Tsulukiani, on the other hand, cited testimony from local resident Elguja Kharazishvili as saying that following the checkpoint installation, locals could no longer enter the nearby Tsagvli forest, as the occupying regime had set up its checkpoint inside and seized half of its territory. According to Tsulukiani, there is a 'diametrical' difference between the accounts of the local resident and Gakharia. She demanded that Gakharia answer if his 'uncoordinated and reckless move' caused Georgia to lose its territories. Gakharia rejected the accusation, calling it 'absolutely unacceptable' to involve local villagers in what he described as a politically motivated prosecution. He defended the construction of the checkpoint, arguing it was necessary due to the Georgian side's lack of effective control over the area—an assessment he said was supported by the State Security Service's 2019 annual report . (The 2019 report cited by Gakharia described 'extremely alarming' and 'dangerous' actions by Russian forces, including marking trees and clearing paths to enable 'illegal patrolling' in the forests near Chorchana and Tsagvli. It also stated that the Georgian police checkpoint had been placed roughly 250 meters from the occupation line to respond to ongoing borderization activities.) Gakharia cited specific incidents of Georgian citizens being 'detained' by occupation forces, including one involving a hunter who, according to Gakharia, was disarmed and sent back to his village with a warning not to return. Tsulukiani challenged the account, saying that the man was 'stopped, disarmed, and released,' accusing Gakharia of lying. 'That's not detention,' she said. 'We will verify your claims, we can't simply take your word for it, no offense.' Gakharia further defended the checkpoint by noting that the so-called Tskhinvali General Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation into the Chorchana checkpoint in 2019 – mirroring the Georgian prosecution's current probe. 'And what you are doing now here, you are actually giving testimony and strengthening the occupiers' interest,' he told the commission. The opening of the police checkpoint led to a flare-up of tensions in August 2019 with de facto authorities in Tskhinvali, who demanded that the checkpoint be dismantled. This was a rare moment under the Georgian Dream administration when police services overtly resisted the demands from Russia-backed Tskhinvali. Some two weeks after the tensions, the Georgian Dream party endorsed Gakharia as prime minister, and backed him prior to his resignation and move to the opposition in 2021. Gakharia has since faced repeated attacks and accusations from his former party colleagues, from allegations of substance abuse to linking both his appointment as prime minister and later his resignation to foreign interference. 'There was a call from the 'Deep State' and his appointment as prime minister followed,' GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze recalled on June 18, claiming that certain 'compromise steps' were taken at the time, which GD no longer tolerates. Georgian Dream officials have repeatedly invoked the 'deep state' conspiracy theory to allege Western interference in Georgian politics, including claims that the West is attempting to drag Georgia into a war with Russia. Also Read:
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Georgian opposition MPs return mandates after boycotting parliament
After a months-long boycott of Georgia's parliament, 49 pro-Western opposition lawmakers have returned their mandates, representatives of the ruling Georgian Dream party said on Wednesday, according to the Interpressnews news agency. That means Georgia's legislature has officially been downsized from 150 to 101 seats. Georgia has been beset by a political crisis since disputed elections in October, in which the ruling Georgian Dream party - which is seen as favourable to Moscow - claimed victory. Several opposition parties refused to accept the result, accusing the governing party of fraud, and their elected representatives boycotted parliament. The parliamentary majority convened without them and has now officially accepted the renunciation of the mandates. Lawmakers of pro-Western former prime minister Giorgi Gakharia's party are also boycotting parliament, but have not officially returned their mandates. Georgia has been rocked by anti-government protests for weeks, especially since Georgian Dream decided to put EU accession talks on hold at the end of November. Hundreds have been arrested, including opposition members and journalists, and many have been injured amid clashes between police and protesters. Several EU countries and the US have imposed sanctions on the leadership in Tbilisi over the violent crackdown on the protests.
