“I will need time to talk to people and listen to what everyone thinks. In the end, I will explain what I believe is right, what should be done, and how it should be done. I will try to do this while they still allow me to remain outside,” said one of the leaders of the “Coalition for Change,” Zurab Japaridze, in an interview with Mtavari Arkhi after leaving the penitentiary facility.

According to him, he plans to go to Rustaveli Avenue today.

“The only source of information I had was what I received from television. I had no access to social networks. Lawyers sometimes told me things. I could, of course, have the audacity to immediately start lecturing everyone and saying what needs to be done, but I will refrain from that. First, I will meet people and talk to them, and I will need time to speak with some and listen to what they think. In the end, I will explain what I believe is right, what should be done, and how it should all be done. I will try to do this while they still allow me to remain outside.

As for the new case opened against me, it will be a masquerade. The process itself is less important; what matters more is how long they will allow us to remain outside. After me, Elene Khoshtaria, Giorgi Vashadze, and Nika Gvaramia are supposed to be released. How long they will allow these people to remain outside is what matters—what we manage to do in that time.

At this moment, the message is clear: they will release us for a short time, allow us to feel this sensation—the feeling I have now when I see open space and experience the strange feeling of freedom—and then they will expect us either to fall silent and stop or to leave the country; in any case, not to continue the struggle. None of us will accept that. What they decide after that, I don’t know. The likelihood that everyone who remains active and continues the struggle will be arrested is very high. It is important that the struggle continues, that protest exists, and that many people continue this fight despite everything we have all been through together. We must be ready for anything. Some will be arrested, some will be beaten, some will be fined, but it is important that the protest continues and that the path toward victory is clear. I plan to go to Rustaveli today,” Zurab Japaridze said.

Zurab “Girchi” Japaridze was arrested on May 22 in the courtroom. He had been summoned to appear before a temporary parliamentary investigative commission to give explanations, but he did not appear. Japaridze was charged under Article 349 of the Criminal Code, which concerns “failure to comply with the request of a temporary investigative commission of the Parliament of Georgia.”