Giorgi Gakharia, Chairman of the party “Gakharia – For Georgia” and former Prime Minister, has issued a statement concerning the start of criminal proceedings against him.

Gakharia calls the charges political persecution and “fabricated,” interpreting them as the fulfillment of a threat made by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of “Georgian Dream.”

“Yesterday, the ‘Georgian Dream’ regime officially institutionalized political persecution against me by bringing fabricated criminal charges. Today, the court issued an arrest warrant against me. This fulfills Ivanishvili’s pre-election threat, when he publicly stated that he had already ‘arranged criminal cases at the judicial level.’ The charges relate to the Chorchana case and the events of June 20, with the obvious intent to fabricate additional accusations.

For our political party – and personally for me, from exile – this marks a new stage in the struggle to preserve Georgia’s European future, a struggle that now requires the use of every available platform. This latest step once again confirms that both our decision to participate in the municipal elections and to enter Parliament was the only correct strategic choice on the path toward this goal.

Unfortunately, both Georgia’s democratic forces and the West collectively lost the battle against propaganda. However, we must not lose the much more important struggle to uphold the European idea in Georgia. Losing this fight will have serious and long-term consequences, not only for our country but for the entire region.

Despite an increasingly repressive environment, freedom and democracy remain deeply rooted in Georgian society. The European idea must be safeguarded in Georgia, and Georgia must firmly remain on the Western agenda. Severing ties or breaking relations will only accelerate the country’s drift into Russia’s sphere of influence,” Gakharia wrote on X.