History will acquit me, if prosecutors find me guilty, said Nika Melia, Chairman of the United National Movement (UNM) party during his trial at the Tbilisi City Court.

When addressing the court, Melia said that the allegation as if imprisonment served his objective was absurd. He said he could be more effective in struggle against the current government outside the jail together with his friends.

According to the UNM Chair, two years passed after he was charged for organizing group violence on June 20-21, 2019, so-called Gavrilov Night developments in Tbilisi. The government erased the footage of video cameras. No witnesses were questioned, no evidence studied. Those, who brutally injured peaceful civilians, remained unpunished. The government tried to reduce his courage by imprisonment.

“Nothing gives me such energy as the realization that you are my adversaries, you extort violence not against me, but against the biggest part of the country. You cannot break me,” Melia claimed.  UNM said that the court was not independent. The prosecutors could find Nika Melia guilty, but the history would acquit him. “Nothing is more painful than the truth,” Melia stated.

The trial of Nika Melia, Chairman of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party is underway at the Tbilisi City Court. The UNM Chair is accused of organizing group violence on June 20-21, 2019.