“Giorgi Gakharia has always borne responsibility for the events of June 20–21, and one of the National Movement’s demands was his legal accountability,” said Irakli Pavlenishvili, a member of the opposition United National Movement party.

According to Pavlenishvili, Bidzina Ivanishvili and his government do not care about the reputation or fate of their team members.

“For example, when corruption continues for more than 12 years, they will blame Garibashvili; when there are human rights violations, they will blame Gakharia. These people not only justified the events, claiming there was a storming or an attempt to change the government, but Mamuka Mdinaradze, Irakli Kobakhidze and Shalva Papuashvili said at the time that proportional force was used, that they had a ‘superpower minister.’
You are a political leader — your own minister conducts a special operation that seriously injures people, and you claim everything was proportional and correct. And then, when Gakharia was cut from the team and lost a clan battle, he suddenly became a criminal,” Pavlenishvili stated.

He reiterated that the National Movement has consistently viewed Gakharia as responsible.

“We have always said that Gakharia is guilty. One of our movement’s demands was not only that he leave office, but that his legal responsibility be addressed.

We now have an illegitimate parliament where two sides are sitting — the representatives of the perpetrator’s entourage, who are trying to legitimize Georgian Dream, and Georgian Dream itself.

European standards strictly prohibit harming peaceful demonstrators. This standard was violated on June 20–21. The same facts occurred in November–December 2024,” Pavlenishvili said.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has announced its decision in the case of Tsaava and Others v. Georgia, on December 11. A total of 26 applicants were involved in the case. The Strasbourg Court found that Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights — covering both inhuman or degrading treatment and the lack of an effective investigation — had been violated in respect of 24 applicants. The Court also ruled that Article 10 (freedom of expression) had been violated in the cases of 14 applicants, while Article 11 (freedom of assembly) had been violated in respect of 11 applicants.

For reference, the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office initiated two criminal cases against former Prime Minister and then Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia. One of these cases concerns the events of June 20–21, 2019. Gakharia was ordered held in pre-trial detention in absentia.