“There is no other way out except for the Georgian people to find strength and carry out a peaceful revolution. Ivanishvili is particularly trying to instill anti-Western hatred in the security agencies,” stated the former chief prosecutor, detained Murtaz Zodelava.

He called on the people in court to “muster their strength.”

“You must understand my inner disposition, state, and anxiety; it’s impossible otherwise when elections are being nullified… In most districts, ‘Georgian Dream’ wrote 100%, just like before the Rose Revolution when Shevardnadze was rigging percentages… Bidzina Ivanishvili today controls all branches; he has metastasized… There is no other way out except for the Georgian people to find strength and carry out a peaceful revolution. Ivanishvili is particularly trying to instill anti-Western hatred in the security agencies…

The part of society that you label as enemies, as foreigners, as neither men nor women, we are the people who believe that Georgia should be part of Europe and that Bidzina should not be our ruler… If we remain in Ivanishvili’s garden and we are the flowers, we either have to act like weeds and escape from here, or we must act like seeds and live here.

I had a long pause in political activity, but after he imprisoned all politicians, after he created a commission of malice and mutual hatred, a sense of protest arose in me.

I, too, was a bureaucrat; perhaps I didn’t look beyond my office either… Today, the situation is different. I am inherently law-abiding; I have never violated anything, and suddenly I’ve gone mad - I’ve lost that sense, thinking that anything is possible to save the country. A peaceful revolution is the remedy; otherwise, Bidzina will not yield… As it turns out, he has sown the greatest fear among his own supporters,” Zodelava stated.

For reference, Murtaz Zodelava, Paata Burchuladze, and Irakli Nadiradze have been charged under Article 19-222, Part 2(a) of the Criminal Code of Georgia (attempt to seize and block strategic and particularly important objects, committed by a group); Article 225, Part 1 (organization and leadership of group violence); and Article 317 (incitement to violently change Georgia’s constitutional order and overthrow the state government), which provides for imprisonment of up to 9 years.

Lasha Beridze has been charged under Article 19-222, Part 2(a) of the Criminal Code of Georgia (attempt to seize and block strategic and particularly important objects, committed by a group) and Article 225, Part 1 (organization and leadership of group violence), which provides for imprisonment of up to 9 years.

Paata Manjgaladze has been charged under Article 225, Part 1 (organization of group violence), which provides for imprisonment of up to 9 years.