“Levan Khabeishvili was arrested on utterly unthinkable charges. It seems that Bidzina Ivanishvili is also afraid of him,” said Petre Tsiskarishvili, a member of the United National Movement opposition party.

According to him, hundreds and thousands of others will step forward in Levan Khabeishvili’s place at the rally on October 4 [the municipal election day].

“Just as Bidzina Ivanishvili has been afraid of Mikheil Saakashvili for many years, it appears that Levan has also become very scary. Because of this fear, they couldn’t find any other way out; they simply decided to isolate him and arrest him on an utterly incomprehensible, absurd charge that he was offering someone a bribe. In fact, how can offering a reward or bonus, which is provided for by law and authorised through budget allocations, be considered a bribe? You answer that yourself.

As for the plans for October 4, this changes nothing. If the regime believed that by isolating Levan, they could clear the field, silence the charges, and suppress the wave of anger in society, I am certain they are mistaken.

Levan was arrested, but hundreds, thousands of others will step forward in his place, ready to stand for what they believe in, and when October 4 arrives, they will witness the true anger of the Georgian people,” Tsiskarishvili emphasised.