The months following Georgian Dream’s largely disputed victory in the 2024 parliamentary elections have seen the ruling party ramp up its persecution of its opponents in an apparent bid to ban all of Georgia’s opposition groups.
In the lead-up to the October 2024 elections, Georgian Dream pledged to outlaw their political rivals, referring to them as the ‘collective National Movement’ — a loose term Georgian Dream uses to refer to all pro-Western liberal opposition groups, from those led by former United National Movement (UNM) officials to political newcomers, and even one party led by their own former prime minister.
As of publication, six major opposition leaders from a variety of groups have already been sentenced to months-long sentences.
The charges? Failure to appear before a parliamentary commission originally established to investigate violations committed by the UNM during its time in power between 2003 and 2012.
While the commission’s initial mandate was limited to those years, it was later expanded to cover the period up to the present day — effectively giving Georgian Dream free reign to target virtually any opposition figure.
Those detained have all boycotted the commission, refusing to recognise its legitimacy, as well as that of the current parliament. Officials have also hinted that other charges, against even those who attended the commission, could follow.
Here’s all you need to know about who’s already in prison and who remains free in Georgia’s opposition.
Who’s already been sentenced?
Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze · Co-leaders of Lelo for Georgia
Sentence: Eight months in prison and a ban on holding office for two years.
Khazaradze and Japaridze founded Lelo in 2019, after a public spat with the government over their torpedoing of the proposed Anaklia Deep Sea Port. The two, who founded and ran TBC Bank, had been major investors in the project. Lelo ran in the 2024 parliamentary elections under the Strong Georgia grouping, with Khazaradze acting as the group’s unofficial leader.
Sentenced on 23 June, the two Lelo leaders declined to attend their trial, instead opting to spend the day with their families, supporters, and journalists at their party’s headquarters in Tbilisi.
A heavy police presence was deployed to their offices to arrest the two.
Zurab Girchi Japaridze · Leader of Girchi — More Freedom
Sentence: Seven months in prison and a ban on holding office for two years.
Japaridze (no relation to Lelo’s Badri Japaridze) is Georgia’s most well-known libertarian political figure. He was a former UNM official who broke away from the party in 2015.
He was sentenced on 23 June, the same day as Lelo’s Japaridze and Khazaradze. Having already been in pre-trial custody for refusing to pay bail, he did not attend his hearing.
Nika Melia · Co-leader of Ahali and former UNM chair
Sentence: Eight months in prison and a ban on holding office for two years.
A seasoned opposition politician, Melia served as the UNM’s chair between 2020 and 2023, but was unseated for essentially failing to secure former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s release from prison.
Later in 2023, Melia formally left the UNM. Shortly after, he announced the formation of Ahali with Nika Gvaramia.
Sentenced on 27 June, Melia, who was already in pre-trial detention for refusing to pay bail in a separate case, did not attend his hearing.
Melia was allegedly detained on 26 June by ‘100 people, all dressed in black’, who his co-leader Gvaramia claimed were Central Criminal Police Department personnel. The charges were disobeying the police. However, since Melia was sentenced, these charges have not been pursued, leading Melia’s lawyer Giorgi Kondakhishvili to suggest they were simply a pretext for his arrest.
Separately, Melia is now being investigated for contempt of court, charges that carry up to two years in prison, after he poured water on a judge during a court hearing related to the original charges. No verdict has been issued as of publication.
Nika Gvaramia · Co-leader of Ahali, former director of opposition TV Mtavari
Sentence: Eight months in prison and a ban on holding office for two years.
Gvaramia previously served as Justice Minister for nine months in 2008 and as Education Minister between 2008 and 2009, in addition to having served as Prosecutor General.
He also served as Rustavi 2’s general director between 2012 and 2019, until its ownership was returned to Kibar Khalvashi, who accused the UNM and Saakashvili of coercing him into selling the channel.
In 2019, he founded Mtavari, a heavily opposition-aligned TV channel, serving as its director for years before his May 2022 arrest and subsequent sentencing to three years and six months in prison for allegedly abusing his position as director of Rustavi 2. He was charged in 2020 with commercial bribery, forging documents, abuse of power, and embezzling property at Rustavi 2.
He was pardoned by then-President Salome Zourabichvili in June 2023, and he stepped down as Mtavari’s director shortly before he and Melia announced the formation of Ahali.
Gvaramia did not attend his sentencing hearing on 1 July, and was already in pre-trial detention for refusing to pay bail.
Giorgi Vashadze · Leader of Strategy Agmashenebeli
Sentence: Seven months in prison and a ban on holding office for two years.
Vashadze is a former UNM official who spearheaded various public service reforms during the party’s time in power. In 2016, he left the party to form what is now Strategy Aghmashenebli. In the October 2024 parliamentary elections, his party ran in coalition with the UNM.
He paid a bail of ₾50,000 ($18,000) in April and was sentenced on 24 June, having also not attended his trial. He was informed about the court’s ruling at his party’s office, where he later held a press briefing calling Georgian Dream ‘nobodies hiding behind a police regime’. He was arrested shortly after.
Givi Targamadze · Retired politician, formerly a UNM and European Georgia MP
Sentence: Seven months in prison and a ban on holding office for two years.
A retired politician, Targamade previously served as a UNM MP during its time in power and after Georgian Dream defeated them in 2012. He later joined European Georgia, a party that split off from the UNM, which he left in 2021.
Targamadze, who paid his bail, remained free until his sentencing on 27 June. He did not attend his trial, and instead went to a police station near his home, where he was handcuffed after the verdict was announced — a ruling he dismissed as ‘an order from Russia’.
Irakli Okruashvili · Leader of Victorious Georgia
Sentence: Eight months in prison and a ban on holding office for two years.
Okruashvili was among the most prominent figures of the 2003 Rose Revolution, in which President Eduard Shevardnadze was overthrown and Saakashvili’s UNM was catapulted to power.
He served in several posts under the UNM government, including as interior, defence, and economic development minister, before falling out with the government and fleeing into exile. Since his return to Georgia he has remained an outspoken, though marginal voice of opposition.
He was placed in pre-trial detention after refusing to pay bail in mid-May, and in late-June, new charges were brought against him over an incident ‘that occurred years ago’, according to his lawyer, who did not provide any further details.
He was sentenced to eight months for not appearing before the commission on 4 July.
Still at liberty (for now)
Aleko Elisashvili · Leader of Citizens
Status: Currently on trial for attacking a Georgian Dream activist.
Elisashvili is a former journalist and urban activist who founded his own party in 2020.
He has been at the forefront of several incidents involving physical violence since 2024, having made headlines for punching Georgian Dream’s parliamentary leader, Mamuka Mdinaradze, in the face during hearings of the foreign agent law. Later, during the peak of the ongoing anti-government protests in December 2024, Elisashvili was detained for allegedly attacking Ali Babayev, a Georgian Dream member.
His trial is scheduled for 8 September.
Salome Zourabichvili · Georgia’s fifth President
Zourabichvili became the first woman to be elected as president — and the last president elected by popular vote — in 2018, running with the support of Georgian Dream.
However, as Georgian Dream continued on its anti-Western trajectory, Zourabichvili distanced herself from the ruling party, eventually cementing her office as the only remaining pro-Western governmental institution by the advent of the October 2024 elections.
In the lead-up to the elections, Zourabichvili became one of the most popular opposition leaders in the country, using her position to stall the adoption of a laundry list of draconic laws that have shaped Georgia’s descent into authoritarianism.
OC Media
Following the Georgian Dream parliament’s election of Mikheil Kavelashvili as her successor, Zourabichvili vacated Orbeliani Palace, but vowed to remain as president.
While she occasionally makes appearances at protests, Zourabichvili has continued to fade from prominence throughout 2025.
Giorgi Gakharia · Leader of For Georgia, former Georgian Dream prime minister
Gakharia founded his own opposition party, For Georgia, in 2021, after breaking with Georgian Dream and stepping down as prime minister.
Always swimming against the opposition stream, Gakharia is the only opposition figure to have attended the anti-opposition parliamentary commission’s hearings. For Georgia is also set to take part in the upcoming local vote, signing a cooperation agreement with Lelo — the only other major opposition party to announce its intention to run.
While he has agreed to attend the parliamentary commission’s hearings, ruling party MPs in the commission have grilled him about his years in leadership and for ‘unilaterally’ opening a new checkpoint in Chorchana, near the South Ossetian administrative boundary line, as interior minister in 2019, hinting at possible charges to come.
He has attended at least one of these hearings remotely, and, as of publication, is believed to be outside the country.
Tina Bokuchava · Chair of the United National Movement
Bokuchava has remained free despite the parliamentary commission originally being created to investigate the party she ostensibly leads.
The party maintains an unwavering loyalty to their imprisoned leader and founder Mikheil Saakashvili, despite widespread criticism of the former president amongst the opposition.
Elene Khoshtaria · Leader of Droa!
Khoshtaria is a former UNM official who went on to form Droa! in 2021 after leaving European Georgia. In the October 2024 elections, she ran under the Coalition for Change with Ahali and Girchi — More Freedom, whose leaders have all been imprisoned for not appearing before the commission.
In March 2025, she claimed to have been detained during a protest and taken to a temporary detention centre, where she said she was stripped naked and assaulted.
In June 2025, she was summoned to court alongside dozens of prominent activists, journalists, and opposition politicians for ‘insulting’ Georgian Dream officials on social media, but was not detained.
Following this, on 22 July, Droa! announced that the National Bureau of Enforcement has frozen the bank accounts of both the party and its leader Khoshtaria, allegedly due to an unpaid court fee dating back to 2021.
Anna Dolidze · Leader of For the People
Dolidze is another former Georgian Dream official, having briefly served as deputy defence minister. She founded her For the People party in mid-2021, focusing on judicial reforms, money in politics, and the disappearance of public spaces.
She ran with Lelo’s Strong Georgia coalition in the 2024 elections, but has since distanced herself from Lelo after it announced its intent to run in the local elections of 2025.
Levan Tsutskiridze · Leader of Freedom Square
Tsutskiridze, the executive director of the Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy, a watchdog group, established Freedom Square in July 2024. He ran as part of the Strong Georgia alliance in the 2024 elections.
He is known for being one of the leaders of protests against the controversial foreign agent law in mid-2024.
Honourable mentions:
Mikheil Saakashvili · Former president and leader of United National Movement
Sentence: in prison until 2032 on a variety of charges.
A permanent fixture of Georgian politics, Saakashvili has been serving a prison sentence since he smuggled himself into Georgia ahead of the local elections in October 2021.
Since his arrest, Saakashvili has several times gone on hunger strike leading to his transfer to a hospital in Tbilisi, where he has been serving his sentence.
