“Don’t like it? Too bad”: third day of Constitutional Court hearings on opposition ban in Georgia
Georgia opposition ban case
On 23 October, Georgia’s Constitutional Court held the third day of hearings on a lawsuit filed by 88 MPs from the ruling Georgian Dream party seeking to ban five opposition parties: Unity – National Movement, Coalition for Change, Lelo – Strong Georgia, Gakharia for Georgia and the Federalists.
Georgian Dream argues that the parties have violated Article 23 of the constitution, which prohibits political parties whose objectives include overthrowing or forcibly changing the country’s constitutional order. One of the arguments cited in the lawsuit is the parties’ refusal to recognise the legitimacy of the current authorities. The lawsuit also accuses them of organising attempts to overthrow the government.
The National Movement faces additional accusations of undermining the country’s independence and violating its territorial integrity. The party is held responsible for the August 2008 war with Russia, when it was in power. All five opposition parties reject the allegations.
Hearings will resume on 26 October and continue throughout the week. The court must deliver its ruling by 24 June 2027.
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- Georgia opposition party ban case: Day two of court proceedings
- Court begins hearing case to ban opposition parties in Georgia: first-day developments
Key events and statements from third day of Constitutional Court hearings
The day focused on motions submitted by Gakharia for Georgia, all of which were rejected by the court.
No opposition motion has been granted during the three days of Constitutional Court proceedings in the case.
Court rejects request to postpone hearings by a month
Berdia Sichinava, representing Gakharia for Georgia, asked the court to postpone the hearing by one month. He argued that procedural rules allow that much time to prepare a response, but his party had only seven days from the announcement that hearings would begin. The United National Movement, Lelo and Coalition for Change joined the motion.
Archil Gorduladze, chair of parliament’s legal affairs committee and one of the MPs who filed the lawsuit, argued that neither the procedural rules, the organic law nor the constitution stipulates that failure to submit a response prevents the court from hearing the case.
The judges deliberated and unanimously rejected the motion. Court president Revaz Nadaraia said the request should have been submitted earlier, as proceedings had already been under way for three days. He added: “If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. What can I do about that?”
Judge Eva Gotsiridze noted that the proceedings would take a long time, adding: “You will have the month provided for in the procedural rules.”
Request to recuse judge Sergo Metopishvili rejected
Gakharia for Georgia’s legal team filed a motion seeking the recusal of judge Sergo Metopishvili. The full bench rejected this request too.
Court rejects request to summon Bidzina Ivanishvili and Irakli Kobakhidze as witnesses
Berdia Sichinava asked the court to summon senior Georgian Dream figures as witnesses, including the party’s founder and honorary chair, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili; Tbilisi mayor Kakha Kaladze; prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze; and current and former senior officials Archil Talakvadze, Mamuka Bakhtadze, Vakhtang Gomelauri and Grigol Liluashvili.
He said their testimony was relevant to the criminal case against party leader Giorgi Gakharia.
Criminal proceedings against Giorgi Gakharia, Georgia’s former prime minister and current leader of the For Georgia party, began on 12 November 2025 and relate to two separate incidents. Gakharia has left the country and is currently abroad.
One case concerns events in 2019, when Gakharia was interior minister. He is accused of unilaterally deciding to set up a police post near the village of Chorchana, in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone, triggering a sharp escalation of tensions. Prosecutors say Tbilisi subsequently lost control of another section of its territory.
The second case relates to the dispersal of a mass protest in Tbilisi on 20 June 2019. Police used force, including rubber bullets, without prior warning. Two people lost an eye and five others sustained serious injuries. Gakharia is accused of ordering the police operation in his capacity as interior minister.
Berdia Sichinava said that under direct questioning, Ivanishvili, Kaladze and others would not be able to evade responsibility for the 2019 decision to establish a police checkpoint in the village of Chorchana.
He also argued that the events of 20 June 2019 in Tbilisi could not be used as grounds for banning the party. “This is an issue on which society cannot reach a consensus,” Sichinava said, adding that “the protest was genuine, but the attempt to storm parliament was unacceptable”.
In response, claimant Archil Gorduladze reminded the court that Giorgi Gakharia was currently wanted and argued that the evidence in the two criminal cases against him should not be considered by the Constitutional Court.
The court rejected this motion too.
Georgian Dream’s position
Before the hearing, claimant Archil Gorduladze, chair of parliament’s legal affairs committee, told journalists that the opposition’s statements “only strengthen the case filed with the Constitutional Court”.
Asked about the opposition’s request to invite experts from the Venice Commission to take part in the proceedings, Gorduladze replied: “The opposition apparently believes that a foreigner knows Georgia’s constitution better than the Constitutional Court judges.”
Responding to criticism that a single lawsuit had been filed against all five parties, Gorduladze said: “They are all just the same National Movement.”
Tengiz Sharmanashvili, another Georgian Dream MP who filed the lawsuit, also told journalists that “the opponents want to drag things out”. He said he was concerned that the opposition was deliberately submitting motions in a form that made it impossible for the court to grant them.
“The opposition is collecting rejected motions for the Strasbourg court, and none of the five parties intends to engage seriously with the proceedings at the Constitutional Court,” Sharmanashvili said.
Outside the court
Opera singer Paata Burchuladze, who was convicted over an attempt to seize the presidential administration on 4 October 2025, has sent a letter to the Constitutional Court offering to testify if the events of 4 October are discussed during the proceedings.
Burchuladze argues that opposition parties are being unfairly accused of organising the events. “I was the organiser of those events, and I alone,” he said, urging the opposition to file a motion to have him summoned for questioning.
Sopio Khorguani, an MP from the opposition party Gakharia for Georgia, told journalists that Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s statement that “the days of this opposition are numbered” was unacceptable. Khorguani described the remark as a direct instruction to the Constitutional Court on the verdict the government expects it to deliver.
Another representative of the party, Giorgi Sharashidze, said that “the whole process resembles a theatre of the absurd”. He said Gakharia for Georgia had been added to the lawsuit at the last minute, calling its inclusion “entirely artificial”. The claimant, he added, had still been unable to specify which article of the constitution the party had violated.
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