Ahali’s Nika Gvaramia, released from prison: We must not be afraid, and we must stop tearing each other apart

Nika Gvaramia, one of the leaders of the Ahali party, was released from prison.

Speaking to journalists immediately after his release, Gvaramia said that countless people remain behind bars for the act of resistance itself, for love of their country, and that he would fight to the last to secure their freedom.

“I feel a deep discomfort knowing that people are still being held not only in this prison, but next door, in the women’s facility. There are enormous numbers of people in Gldani Prison. That discomfort will be transformed into resolve: very soon, I will fight with everything I have to get them out of here. We all feel a sense of inadequacy, morally, too. We miss their strength, their spirit, their energy. Our party chairman is still here. Beside him, Elene, Misha, Murtaz, Khabe [Khabeishvili]. I don’t want to leave anyone out. Mzia [Amaglobeli] is losing her sight in the women’s prison next door. Saba was tortured; he is in Rustavi, too. Countless young men and older people are incarcerated for having fought, for loving their own homeland. This country can never go back to what it was before their arrests. That is simply out of the question. We must all understand that without these people, victory will be extremely difficult, if it is possible at all. That is why we must get them out, and soon,” Nika Gvaramia has stated.

When asked whether, like many politicians before him upon leaving prison, he would be joining calls for unity, Gvaramia replied that what mattered most to him was the substance behind the words.

“What matters most to me is what words actually mean. One thing I know: people need to see us together, working together, and delivering results together. I won’t use the well-worn word ‘unity,’ I have no way of knowing what each person means by it: a single political entity, a shared platform for dialogue, or something else entirely. What matters to me is what the platform for action actually looks like.

All of this is deeply exhausting, but it is not an end in itself for me. I, too, want to live an ordinary life, perhaps even a thoroughly apolitical one. But that will come after this country is free, truly Georgian and a member of the European Union, so that all of us can live well, including the Georgian Dream supporters.

Those Georgian Dream people, who are still here [in prison], or those who are no longer GD’s but former officials, I regard them as political prisoners. A political prisoner is not measured by whether or not they committed the act in question. The true measure is this: under this government, they were not afforded a fair trial, and they will not be,” Nika Gvaramia stated.

Asked a further question, “How can this regime be defeated?” Gvaramia replied:

“We must not be afraid, and we must stop tearing each other apart. I genuinely do not know what purpose is served by politicians hurling abuse at one another every single day. Even from prison, we watched all of this and chose not to respond, because we did not believe it was right, and we did not think it was what mattered. I would ask everyone: instead of criticising others, speak about your own convictions, what you yourself are doing, what you think, what needs to be done. Perhaps we will agree, and we too, as ordinary soldiers, will follow that lead. We are not commanders. We are fighters who believe we know what must be done. If our convictions turn out to be worthless, no one is stopping anyone else from putting forward the right answers.”

Nika Gvaramia was sentenced to eight months in prison on July 1 by a court ruling that found him in contempt of a parliamentary temporary investigative commission. He was also banned from holding public office for two years.