Families of detained Georgian demonstrators announce new public movement

Family members and relatives of prisoners detained during the ongoing pro-European protests in Georgia have announced the creation of a new public movement called ‘For the Freedom of Prisoners of Conscience’.

On Wednesday, they also announced a planned demonstration to begin on 8 April, saying they will gather at the 9 April Memorial in Tbilisi and spend the night on Rustaveli Avenue. They called on others to join them.

‘Today we begin a new resistance movement that will be strong and relentless. We, the parents and family members of prisoners of conscience, are creating a public movement “For the Freedom of Prisoners of Conscience”’, Ketuna Kerashvili, sister of the detained Irakli Kerashvili said.

Irakli Kerashili, along with 10 other demonstrators, was accused of group violence during the November–December large-scale demonstrations, when tens of thousands of people from all over Georgia protested the government’s EU U–turn, demanding new parliamentary elections and the release of those detained during clashes with law enforcement officers.

Wednesday marked the 126th day of the pro-European protests.

The crisis originated after the October 2024 parliamentary elections gave the ruling Georgian Dream party a large majority, with 54% of the vote.

It then deepened when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced in late November that the government was halting Georgia’s EU bid until 2028, sparking daily mass protests during which more than 400 demonstrators have been reported to have been detained thus far.

Speaking on behalf of the movement, Ketuna Kerashvili stated that their main demands were the release of those detained during the protests and the appointment of new, fair elections.

‘Our children, sisters, brothers, and friends are today prisoners of conscience. They were detained only because they peacefully protested the illegal actions of the government, the rigging of elections, the trampling of democratic principles and the country’s deviation from the pro-Western course. Their detention is part of political repression aimed at intimidating society and suppressing dissent’, Kerashvili said.

‘We would like to start with a proposition: Russia started the August 2008 War. Abkhazia and Samachablo [South Ossetia] are Georgia’, she said, referring to the parliamentary temporary investigation commission which studies the former United National Movenment’s (UNM) government and actions from 2003 till now.

The commission to investigate the UNM’s time in power was established in February, and followed repeated pledges by Georgian Dream to punish the UNM — the ruling party has particularly focused on accusing the UNM of provoking and starting the August 2008 War.

The UNM, which ran in the October 2024 elections under the Unity — National Movement group alongside the Strategy Aghmashenebeli party, was in power between 2003–2012, and is most associated with former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

‘We will protect the sons, sisters, brothers, and all those who fight for the independence and freedom of Georgia, and we will not allow them to remain in prison innocently’, Kerashvili said.

For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.