UPDATE: UNM rally in central Tbilisi demanding ex-president Saakashvili’s release ends
Georgian law enforcers are present at various locations to ensure peace during the rally which began at 6 p.m. Photo: Shot from Mtavari Arkhi TV live video
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Updated at 21:29
A protest rally organized by the opposition United National Movement (UNM) in central Tbilisi demanding the release of ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained on October 1 a day before the municipal elections has ended.
Earlier at 21:04
Calling the former president a ‘political prisoner’ UNM, the party founded by Saakashvili, claims and that only Saakashvili is able to play a decisive role in changing the current Georgian Dream government.
Mikheil Saakashvili has tweeted from prison:
Day 14 of a hunger strike. Georgian people gathered on a main square & around streets of Tbilisi demanding freedom of a political prisoner #MikheilSaakashvili #FreeSaakashvili @ErinBurnett @CNN @BBCWorld pic.twitter.com/LK0I3D43gQ
— Mikheil Saakashvili (@SaakashviliM) October 14, 2021
UNM Chair Nika Melia told the crowd that they will not stop until Saakashvili’s eventual release. He hereby thanked everyone who have gathered at the Freedom Square despite their political preferences.
At the rally on Liberty Square, @SaakashviliM written address from prison calls for the Georgian people to stand against hatred and oppression
— Mtavari TV (@MtavariChannel) October 14, 2021
More: https://t.co/lnSvq1hKBy pic.twitter.com/PLtc8GbvN4
On his part Saakashvili has sent a letter from prison calling his supporters to ‘stand up against the regime of former chair of the ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili, 'which is dragging our homeland to Putin's Russia’.
Why am I in Georgia now? I am here because I can not be happy even in Ukraine which I hold dear, I cannot be anywhere else when I see so much cruelty and misery in my beloved homeland”, he wrote.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili claims that Saakashvili returned to Georgia, after eight years in political exile, ‘with a single goal - to spark tension, destabilization, and even to commit murder.’
Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine and chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, was convicted in Georgia in absentia in 2018 and was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of authority.
He has also been charged with four other offences related to the illegal seizure of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal, and illegal border-crossing.
Georgian law enforcers are present at various locations in central Tbilisi in the evening to ensure peace during the United National Movement (UNM) rally which began at 6 p.m. and where demonstrators are demanding the release of former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili from prison.
A number of people in western Georgian cities are standing along the highway with brooms to protest the United National Movement (UNM) rally in Tbilisi later today, where demonstrators will demand the release of former president Mikheil Saakashvili from prison.
The Lelo and European Georgia opposition parties have refused to join a rally planned by the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party in central Tbilisi tomorrow, where demonstrators intend to demand the release of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili from prison.
Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been detained today, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced. "Our law enforcement agencies had prior information about his (Saakashvili’s) movement from Ukraine to Georgia and the process was under the control” Garibashvili stated.
The United Nations Movement (UNM) plans to hold ‘large rallies’ in all large cities in Georgia, during which demonstrators will demand the release of former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili from prison, UNM member Levan Bezhashvili said earlier today.
Ruling party MP and Vice Parliament Speaker Gia Volski has responded to the protest rally organised by the largest opposition party, United National Movement (UNM), stating that ‘the number of people gathered at the rally proved nothing to me.’ The UNM and its supporters demanded the release of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who was arrested on October 1, the day before municipal elections in the country took place.
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has released a letter from Rustavi Prison No. 12 earlier today and asked emigrants to return to Georgia ‘for a week, by the end of the month’ to take part in a ‘decisive battle.’
Three individuals demanding Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s release have been detained, protesters report. Civil activists supporting Saakashvili have gathered close to the house and business centre of former ruling party chair Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Opposition MP Salome Samadashvili says former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili should be given the right to appeal the verdict against him as he didn’t attend court hearings.
Politician Gigi Ugulava, the United National Movement’s mayoral candidate for the port city of Poti, will be fined for breaking quarantine rules. Ugulava, who tested positive for COVID-19 on October 7, attended the UNM rally yesterday, delivering a speech without wearing a face mask.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into the recent attack on opposition United National Movement (UNM) headquarter in the town of Rustavi. UNM mayoral candidate Davit Kirkitadze reported earlier today that the participants of the October 14 anti-opposition rally were among the offenders.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has addressed crowds at a large assembly organized by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party today, where he said that the country has a government which is ‘well-aware of the needs and necessities’ of its people and is taking ‘all steps’ to ensure Georgia’s stable and peaceful development.