The court has established a practice that politicians are granted bail and released, "I am not going to pay a single lari! I haven't paid anything! - They may confiscate my passport - Zurab Girchi Japaridze, a member of the Coalition for Change, told journalists after he was charged with failing to appear before the temporary investigative commission of the Parliament.

According to him, he is not planning to leave the country either.

"They handed me materials, some documents. What I looked at were my WhatsApp messages, where they called me to this so-called commission. There are "screenshots" of my Facebook posts, and they are printed in an 80 font, it's in the materials. There's nothing else inside. They already knew that I wasn't going to come. I didn't sign anything. Today, they'll probably send me to court, then there will be a trial and they'll probably discuss the imposition of a preventive measure. The court has established a practice that politicians are granted bail and released, "I am not going to pay a single lari! I haven't paid anything! The content of the bail is that I won't flee the country. I'm not going to go anywhere! When they first called me, I was in Strasbourg, I arrived, I'm here. In general, I'm not going to leave this country anywhere! Until I send them away, I'm not going to stop! They might confiscate my passport. This is not a problem either, I am not going to leave this country anywhere!” - Zurab Japaridze stated.

Zurab Girchi Japaridze has been charged with failing to appear before the temporary investigative commission of the Parliament.

For information, the case concerns an investigation into the fact of failure to comply with the lawful request of the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Georgian Parliament. Japaridze did not appear at the said commission, after which he was summoned to give testimony before a magistrate judge.

The investigation is underway under Article 349 of the Criminal Code, which refers to "failure to comply with the request of the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Georgian Parliament." This is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for a term of up to one year, or deprivation of the right to hold a position or engage in an activity for a term of up to three years.