“It is an absolute mistake to tell only part of the truth, because half the truth means you are hiding the other half. The claim that October 4 was a day of victory is, in this sense, a very heavy assertion. People ended up in prisons, and I don’t believe, especially their families, considered it a day of victory,” said Levan Sanikidze, a member of the United National Movement opposition party.

According to Sanikidze, October 4 was indeed a day of battle, but it was far from a day of victory.

“I feel justified in speaking so openly on this matter because it was members of their families, the families of the organisers themselves, and the organisers themselves who, before their arrest, openly discussed betrayal and the disruption of the plan. They candidly spoke about which parts of the plan were actually meant to lead to the Atoneli Palace. It is a fact that Paata Burchuladze repeatedly stated that even a gas mask should not have been necessary to execute the plan they had devised.

A man arrived in official attire with his eight-year-old grandson. I don’t believe he wanted to witness the scene we saw at Atoneli. I am convinced we are facing a very serious betrayal, a disruption of the plan, and a flood of disinformation being fed to these people.

This is a serious matter because these individuals are in prison. I genuinely do not wish to add any extra pressure on them to reveal everything, but I believe it is their duty.

We must be clear about what October 4 was really about, how it was designed to prevent the Georgian Dream from escaping accountability, to allow others to say, ‘They didn’t want it any other way; they planned it this way, and we knew it.’

Most importantly, we need to identify the traitors, the influential figures involved, including those Murtaz Zodelava mentioned before his arrest,” stated Levan Sanikidze on the PalitraNews programme.