'Crimes against state': Georgia launches criminal case against eight opposition leaders
Georgia has opened a criminal case against eight opposition leaders: Mikheil Saakashvili, Giorgi Vashadze, Nika Gvaramia, Nika Melia, Zurab Girchi Japaridze, Elene Khoshtaria, Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze.
The case was launched jointly by the general prosecutor’s office, the state security service and the interior ministry. The officials are accused of “crimes against the state” including sabotage, aiding hostile foreign activity, financing actions against the constitutional order and national security, and calling for the violent overthrow of the government.
The prosecution has requested bail for Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze and asked for a preliminary hearing for the remaining defendants, who are already in custody.
Prosecutor’s statement
According to Georgia’s attorney general, Giorgi Gvarakidze, “while the Georgian government chose a course of maintaining peace and refused to impose economic sanctions on Russia,” some opposition leaders — Elene Khoshtaria, Zurab Girchi Japaridze, and Giorgi Vashadze — allegedly passed information to foreign states about oil imports and the situation in Georgia’s military sector. Investigators claim they spread “false information suggesting that Georgia’s airspace was being used to deliver Iranian drones to Russia.”
The attorney general also alleges that Khoshtaria, Japaridze, and Vashadze provided foreign partners with lists of civil servants and other documents to facilitate sanctions. Prosecutors say this led to Western sanctions targeting around 300 officials and business figures.
Gvarakidze further stated that after the parliamentary elections in October 2024, the accused “began active street campaigns aimed at radicalising the process — publicly calling for revolution, the overthrow of authorities, picketing government buildings, and physical confrontations with law enforcement.”
The prosecutor added that former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, using his personal social media accounts, “publicly encouraged his supporters to engage in illegal and violent actions, calling for aggressive resistance. In his statements, he urged them to occupy government buildings and ‘overthrow the regime.’”
Describing the ongoing protests in Georgia, now lasting almost a year, the prosecution claims that funding and material support for the demonstrators came through several non-governmental organisations and specially established funds receiving money from international donors.
новости в Грузии
