Gia Khukhashvili on today's court hearing: The intent was to trade people's freedom, just like terrorists do: they take hostages and exchange them for something. Now, they don't know with whom or what to trade, and they are looking for the right moment
From the outset, the intent was to trade people's freedom, just like terrorists do—they take hostages and then exchange them for something or simply sell them. This is how expert Gia Khukhashvili reacted to Judge Ketevan Jachvadze's decision to keep protesters detained during demonstrations in custody.
As Khukhashvili stated on PalitraNews' program 360 Degrees, the authorities still do not know with whom or what to trade and are waiting for the right moment and circumstances to make it possible.
"From the very beginning, when mass arrests started and about 500 people were detained, the plan was straightforward: first, to intimidate society so that people wouldn’t take to the streets, and second, to trade these individuals' freedom. Just like terrorists, they take hostages and then exchange them for something or simply sell them for money. This is still the strategy. The first objective failed because no one was intimidated by this, and now they want to sell.
To sell these individuals' freedom, someone has to negotiate and enter into a deal, but so far, they don’t see that opportunity. They don’t know with whom or what to trade and are searching for the right moment and circumstances to make it possible. These people either need to be sold domestically to Georgian society at some cost, or they need to be sold to the West for some price. However, in my opinion, that ship has already sailed," Khukhashvili stated.
Khukhashvili also spoke on the program about sanctions imposed on the leaders of Georgian Dream and their associates, noting that the absence of the party chairman, Irakli Garibashvili, from the sanctions list might indicate that he is a "golden witness" in relation to the sanctions list.
"Didn’t it raise questions for you as to why Garibashvili isn’t on the list? For the same reasons these individuals were sanctioned, Garibashvili was deeply involved in these matters, second only to Bidzina [Ivanishvili]. No one in the system knows more than Garibashvili. U.S. sanctions are never based on thin air—they require documented evidence, a cascade of proof. These are not purely political decisions, as the U.S. is a rule-of-law country.
It’s clear that there are golden witnesses in connection with the sanctions list. Can you rule out that Garibashvili is one of them? I’ll tell you directly—I cannot rule it out," Khukhashvili said.
