“No judge, no verdict, no prison will stop the Georgian people’s struggle. The fight will continue until final victory, until political persecution no longer exists in Georgia and every political prisoner is free,” declared Levan Bezhashvili, a member of the United National Movement.

According to Bezhashvili, “the regime is afraid of a free person, afraid of defiance, afraid of those who could not be broken, could not be intimidated, could not be bribed.”

“Today is another day of political execution by Ivanishvili’s court. Today, an obedient judge serving the Russian oligarch and Georgia’s shadow ruler, Bidzina Ivanishvili, will hand down a verdict against Levan Khabeishvili, Chairman of the Political Council of the United National Movement. This is not justice. This is not a court of law. This is a machine of political retribution that has served a single purpose since 2012: to destroy free thought, the opposition, and all those who refuse to submit to the Russian regime.

For fourteen years, the United National Movement has been the primary target of Ivanishvili’s regime. For fourteen years, thousands of people have fallen victim to the repressions of this Russian regime. For fourteen years, a political system built on fear, violence, and political persecution has been taking shape in Georgia. The founding Chairman of the United National Movement, Georgia’s third President Mikheil Saakashvili, is today Putin’s personal prisoner. He is held captive for one reason alone, because he led Georgia towards Europe, defeated corruption, built a strong state, and never bowed his head before Russia.

Today, the United National Movement’s leader Irakli Nadiradze and fifteen members of our party are in political captivity; fellow fighters who are being punished for no other reason than that they stand in defence of freedom, Europe, and Georgia. And now the regime wishes to put Levan Khabeishvili on trial. For what? For standing on the side of the people. For knowing no fear. For speaking the truth. Levan Khabeishvili is being tried because he appealed to the special forces and told them: do not beat your own people, do not poison human beings with choking gas, do not carry out unlawful and criminal orders, do not become a blind instrument of the Russian regime against your own people. It was precisely these words that became the cause of their vengeance.

The regime is afraid of a free person, afraid of defiance, afraid of those who could not be broken, could not be intimidated, could not be bribed. Ivanishvili would do well to understand this clearly: no judge, no verdict, no prison will stop the Georgian people’s struggle. This fight will continue until final victory. It will continue until political persecution no longer exists in Georgia and every political prisoner is free; until Georgia has finally returned to the European path. In this struggle, it is the Georgian people who will prevail. Freedom will triumph. It must,” declared Levan Bezhashvili.