Opposition rallies at Rustavi prison in support of detained ex-president Saakashvili
The United National Movement opposition party and their supporters are holding a rally at Rustavi No.12 prison now to express their support to the country’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili. Photo: RFE/RL.
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The United National Movement (UNM) opposition party and their supporters are now rallying at Rustavi No.12 prison to express support for the currently detained third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Saakashvili, who recently returned to Georgia for the first time since 2013, was detained in Tbilisi on October 1, ahead of Saturday’s municipal elections.
He claimed he ‘put his life at risk’ to help his UNM party win the elections and change the Georgian Dream government via snap parliamentary elections.
At the rally UNM head Nika Melia claimed that the GD’s attempts ‘to cause a rift’ between him and Saakashvili are ‘in vain.’
Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili stated yesterday that Saakashvili planned a large rally in central Tbilisi on October 3 ‘with bloody provocations’ to spark tension in the country and Melia stood against the move.
My letter from prison
— Mikheil Saakashvili (@SaakashviliM) October 2, 2021
My dear associates and my Georgian community.
When I left Kyiv and came here, I knew that I would most likely be arrested, with fabricated, false verdicts which were issued by order of Putin. No country in the world except Russia recognizes this sentence... pic.twitter.com/ffA8VPvhz6
Garibashvili said that Melia dislikes Saakashvili and ‘is happy’ the ex-president is in prison.
No one will be able to cause a rift between me and Saakashvili. Moreover, it is my human, political and civic responsibility to fight to the end (for the release of Saakashvili),” Melia said.
During the rally Saakashvili’s lawyer read the ex-president’s letter to supporters, in which he said that the municipal election results were ‘great’ and that now the people must fight for the opposition’s victory in election run-offs.
The ruling party and PM Garibashvili, however, say that the municipal elections, in which the GD received almost 47 per cent of the vote in the proportional part of the elections and won the majority of mayoral constituencies, ‘has finally demolished the destructive opposition.’
Garibashvili stated that the GD will also win mayoral runoffs in 20 of 64 constituencies, including the second round of elections in five major cities of Georgia - Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Batumi and Poti on October 30.