People’s Power movement member, Dimitri Khundadze, believes the ICC conclusion of the investigation phase in the Situation in Georgia is “the Georgian government’s victory.”

“We have already won legally against Russia, and now the way is open for us to restore our country’s territorial integrity peacefully”, Khundadze asserted on Monday.

He claims the ruling Georgian Dream party “replaced the UNM’s treason with Georgia’s victory.”

“This is the real way to return our temporarily occupied territories in a peaceful way and to fight against Russia fairly,” he added.

Karim Khan, the Prosecutor of the Hague International Criminal Court (ICC), last week announced the conclusion of the investigation phase in the Situation in Georgia – which looked into crimes against humanity and war crimes in the context of an international armed conflict between 1 July and 10 October 2008.

According to the statement, these investigations resulted in warrants of arrest being issued, on 30 June 2022, by Pre-Trial Chamber I, against three suspects: Mr Mikhail Mayramovich Mindzaev, Mr Gamlet Guchmazov and Mr David Georgiyevich Sanakoev.

Khan said “the charges that I had brought, and for which arrest warrants were issued, focus specifically on unlawful confinement, torture and ill-treatment, hostage taking and subsequent unlawful transfer of ethnic Georgian civilians in the context of an occupation by the Russian Federation.  As I stated at the time of my application for these arrest warrants, these crimes are representative of a wider pattern of criminality which included the widespread looting and destruction of Georgian villages and homes and the denial of the right of return of almost all of the Georgian population of the Tskhinvali region.”