The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has launched criminal proceedings against former Prime Minister and leader of the Gakharia for Georgia movement, Giorgi Gakharia.

The above was announced by the Prosecutor General of Georgia, Giorgi Gvarakidze, at the briefing held at the Prosecutor's Office.

According to him, the case concerns the well-known episodes of June 20-21, 2019 and Chorchana, namely, the facts of organizing intentional serious injury to more than two people during a protest rally held in the vicinity of the Parliament Palace and the abuse of official authority by a person holding a state political position.

As the Prosecutor General noted, Giorgi Gakharia is charged under Articles 25, 117, Part 3, Subparagraph “m” and Article 333, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which provides for up to 13 years of imprisonment as a form and measure of punishment.

"We would like to remind the public that on May 7, 2024, in the so-called June 20 case, the European Court of Human Rights adopted a decision, according to which, in connection with the events that took place on June 20-21, 2019, near the Palace of Parliament in Tbilisi, it established a procedural violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and ordered the state to conduct certain investigative actions, as well as to assess the actions of the persons responsible for planning and implementing the event.

Accordingly, a number of investigative actions were carried out, including investigative experiments with the participation of the victims, hundreds of witnesses were additionally interviewed, and more than a hundred different types of examinations were conducted. As a result of the investigative actions, the guilt of a specific person - Giorgi Gakharia, was revealed, which is as follows:

On June 20, 2019, in the evening hours, on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi, initially peaceful demonstration turned into violent activities. Some of the protesters tried to enter the parliament building through violence. They began to use violence against law enforcement officers stationed in front of the parliament building, attacking them with various objects, damaging and destroying their belongings.

The then Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Gakharia, ignoring instructions and legislation, ordered the employees of the Department for Special Tasks to use special means jointly, in parallel, without any warning and without giving peaceful participants of the demonstration the opportunity to leave the territory, thus organizing intentional harm to the health of citizens.

As a result, dozens of citizens received injuries of varying degrees due to the joint use of special means, including rubber bullets, among them two citizens lost their eyes, and five citizens received serious health injuries.

As for the second episode of the accusation: the investigation has established that on August 24, 2019, the then Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Gakharia, who was also the Secretary and Permanent Member of the National Security Council, ignoring the authority of the National Security Council and without agreement with the Prime Minister of Georgia, as well as without coordinating with the State Security Service of Georgia and without informing the European Union Monitoring Mission, unilaterally made a decision to establish an additional police checkpoint along the occupation line near the village of Chorchana.

This fact was widely covered in the media at the initiative and with the participation of Giorgi Gakharia. As expected, the representatives of the occupation regime used these actions as a pretext for actions against the territorial integrity of Georgia. In particular, on September 5, 2019, the illegal armed formations of the de facto Tskhinvali regime occupied the heights in the territory controlled by the Georgian government.

Occupation forces took control of approximately one hundred hectares of forest. Various illegal activities took place, including the movement of heavy military equipment towards settlements, which created a real threat of armed conflict between the parties. The occupied territory also included residential buildings of the villages of Obi and Tsnelisi of the Khashuri municipality.

By this action, Giorgi Gakharia intentionally exceeded the scope of his official authority, which resulted in a substantial violation of the legitimate interests of society and the state.

Giorgi Gakharia is charged under Articles 25, 117, Part 3, Subparagraph “m” and Article 333, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which provides for up to 13 years of imprisonment as a form and measure of punishment.

The Prosecutor's Office will apply to the Tbilisi City Court within the time limit established by law for the application pre-trial detention.

The investigation into the criminal case continues," Gvarakidze said.