“No one in Georgia has ever been prosecuted for speaking at their own trial; this case will be the first. The government of Ivanishvili must be toppled, and everyone who serves this regime must be brought to justice,” former Defence Minister Bacho Akhalaia stated at his own court hearing.

Akhalaia stated that he would do everything in his power to bring down the government, asserting that achieving this through elections was out of the question.

“We are living under a dictatorship. Elections are not an option. The government we have today must be overthrown. That is the only way. When a dictatorship bears down on you, the path for society is to bring it down. No tyranny has ever been toppled by an entire nation — entire nations don’t tend to participate in such processes. Regimes always have their supporters. Whatever force, whatever form may prove necessary, we must achieve the fall of this regime, and we must put it on trial in these very courtrooms. They must be tried by whatever courts exist at that time.

You will have to try the GD supporters, the judges, and the prosecutors. People fear imprisonment, fear the humiliation they will face at the hands of the regime, which is why political actors don’t speak openly about overthrowing it. Some claim they will change the government through elections, but they are only deceiving themselves and Ivanishvili.

I will do everything to bring Ivanishvili down. I am certain you will pass this message to him. You will deliver a verdict at the substantive hearing, too. Convincing this court is not the main purpose of what I have to say,” Akhalaia stated.

For reference, Georgia’s Prosecutor’s Office charged former Minister of Defence Bacho Akhalaia on March 27 with calling for the violent overthrow of Georgia’s constitutional order and the forcible removal of state authority. The charge carries a custodial sentence of up to three years.