Former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili responded to a statement made by Nika Melia, one of the leaders of the “Coalition for Change,” during a court hearing. Saakashvili clarified that Melia was neither mentioned nor implied in his post published on November 2.

Saakashvili emphasized that he deeply values the long-standing struggle of both Nika Melia and Nika Gvaramia, for which they paid the price of repeated political imprisonment.

“Regarding Nika Melia’s statement, he is neither mentioned nor implied in my November 2 post. There is nothing written there that corresponds to what Nika is referring to.

The same applies to my other friend, Nika Gvaramia. I highly value both Nikas’ long-standing struggle, for which they paid the price of repeated political imprisonment. They were last imprisoned because they took a principled position regarding the ‘Betrayal Commission.’

The red line, at a time when the common enemy must be defeated, is irrelevant. In this difficult moment, only unconditional unity can save us, and it would be a serious mistake to attack each other.

The country must be saved, and history will not forgive us for following personal emotions and ego clashes at this critical moment.

My post three weeks ago was dedicated to preventing the Gilauri clan or any other ‘businessmen’ associated with Ivanishvili from interfering in politics, and I firmly stand by this position. After victory, we must adopt a law preventing oligarchs from entering politics (I am one of the co-authors of such a law in Ukraine).

Overall, I want to stress once again that unity has no alternative. The Rose Revolution succeeded precisely because of the unity of different leaders. It is good that party representatives made very restrained comments about this matter.

By the way, my Nika, we are separated not by a hectare but by just one prison cell, on the third floor of the prison, and we could have resolved any misunderstanding here as well.

Freedom for Nika Melia and all political prisoners!”

Saakashvili also shared a photo with Nika Melia.

For context, yesterday, Nika Melia, during his court hearing, stated:

“One politician delivered a message sold and negotiated to Ivanishvili; I cannot be in the same space with such people. You will not see me even a hectare away from such an accuser.”

His statement gave the impression that he was referring to former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Earlier, in his November 2 post, Saakashvili spoke about his government’s Prime Minister Nika Gilauri, claiming that Gilauri had invested “his” money in the election campaign on the condition that party unification would not occur. After the elections, the “Mtavari Channel” was closed, and Gilauri “vanished and switched to lobbying for Ivanishvili in the West.”

“I am convinced that even in the last local elections, Ivanishvili used financial levers and is still well supporting those individuals whose main task is ‘not to call for Misha’ (while Ivanishvili is practically never mentioned),” Saakashvili wrote.