“This is, one way or another, a decision that is close to rational, because Levan Khabeishvili will not have to spend 5 or 6 years in prison,” said Giorgi Kondakhishvili, one of the leaders of the “United National Movement” and Khabeishvili’s lawyer, after the court session, following the judge’s ruling that sentenced the opposition politician to 2 years and 6 months of imprisonment.

According to Kondakhishvili, the defense will appeal the city court’s decision to the appellate instance, as, in his view, Khabeishvili has committed no crime.

“I want to congratulate Levan, because compared to the sentence he could have received, this is practically half of it.

I have repeatedly stated, and in all my public appearances said, that a politician’s public statements could have been qualified as an official crime and bribery. This would have completely overturned the interpretation of this article.

They probably discussed it and made what is called a ‘rational’ decision: to avoid unlawful imprisonment, they reclassified the charge, although Article 318 refers to sabotage. Sabotage means that a person intentionally weakened the state through their actions, and that their conduct was aimed at weakening a state body or institution.

I do not know on what basis the court agreed with this position. Today the judge gave no explanation at all—he simply announced the verdict and left the courtroom.

In any case, this is a relatively rational decision because Levan will not have to spend 5–6 years in prison.

As for the second charge qualification, they considered his statements to be a call for revolt, although in all his statements he spoke about peaceful and constitutional change of government and provided specific examples.

Most likely, the judge will write in the reasoning that Levan said one thing but meant another, which is also absurd—how can we talk about a ‘reasonable doubt’ standard when a person is being sentenced to two years based on assumptions?

We will appeal the court’s decision because Levan has committed no crime,” Kondakhishvili said.

For context, in Khabeishvili’s case, Article 339 was reclassified to Article 318, Part 1, and he was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison.