Tina Khidasheli: If anyone ever asks years later when a dictatorship was established in Georgia, you can confidently answer that it was established on May 22, 2025

If anyone ever asks years later when a dictatorship was established in Georgia, you can confidently answer that it was established on May 22, 2025, - Tina Khidasheli, founder of the organization Civil Idea, stated at the general briefing of non-governmental organizations.

According to Khidasheli, the arrest of one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change, Zurab Japaridze, “is a classic case of political retaliation”.

“The number of political prisoners in Georgia is increasing every day. In this country, people go to prison every day because they think differently, because they have the courage to oppose the regime and do not accept the artificially created false narratives that the Georgian Dream invents.

The case of Zurab Japaridze is of fundamental importance for the entire Georgian society and the international community to be in the center of special attention. Because he is an incumbent political leader. This is a classic case of political retaliation and imprisonment.

For the first time in the history of Georgia, we can say that we have an incumbent politician in prison in Georgia. Such a thing has never happened in Georgia. If he had not left the parliament, we would have had a member of parliament in prison because he did not obey the regime.

If someone in their right mind in Georgia tells me that there is any connection between the summoning and questioning of Zurab Japaridze, either as a participant or a witness or in some other status, about the crimes committed during the National Movement, then Tea Tsulukiani can just as successfully summon any citizen in this country and, if he receives the answer - “What I have to do with all this, I am not coming”, put him in prison. We are dealing with injustice on this scale, in addition to the fact that we are looking at a typical, classic political retaliation. That is why this regime is dangerous.

If anyone ever asks years later when a dictatorship was established in Georgia, you can confidently answer that it was established on May 22, 2025,” said Tina Khidasheli.