Zurab Japaridze, one of the leaders of Georgia’s opposition, was released from prison this morning after serving a seven-month jail term. He had been sentenced in June for boycotting an anti-opposition parliamentary commission, and a new case was opened against him while he was in custody.
Japaridze, the leader of the Girchi — More Freedom party leader, left Rustavi prison, near Tbilisi, on Friday morning. He said that he was released several hours earlier than expected, which left him outside alone for about an hour, until he was later able to contact his wife with the help of a taxi driver who happened to appear.
‘They explained nothing to me, they just told me to pack my things and leave. I had nothing; I came out wearing just a T-shirt’, the politician said upon arriving at his home in Tbilisi, where he was met by family members, friends, colleagues, and journalists.
Later, the Penitentiary Service denied that the politician had been informed days in advance of a release time.
Speaking about his future plans, Japaridze said he would need a few days to ‘get his bearings’ after months in prison, though he noted that he has ‘some ideas’.
‘But first I want to talk to others, and then I’ll say what I think would be the right course’, he added.
Asked about developments that took place while he was in prison, including new restrictive laws adopted by the ruling party and fresh arrests, Japaridze said that Georgia is ‘roughly on the verge of becoming something like Chechnya’, pointing to Russia’s alleged influence over the policies of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
‘This is no longer an independent country. We no longer have an independent policy: Russia governs the country from start to finish’, he said, adding, however, that ‘in the end, we will still win’.
‘No matter how difficult this path may be, it will in no case be more difficult than what this country and its people went through a century ago under Russian rule. Of course it’s hard, but who thought it would be easy?’
The parliamentary commission which Japaridze boycotted was established by the ruling party in February with the declared aim of ‘investigating’ the period of rule of the former ruling United National Movement party’s (UNM) time in power, led by imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Yousef Bardouka
While the commission’s initial mandate was limited to the years the UNM was in power (2003–2012), it was later expanded to cover the period up to the present day — effectively giving Georgian Dream free rein to target virtually any opposition figure.
Several opposition politicians boycotted the commission, resulting in them getting months-long prison sentences. Alongside Japaridze, leaders of the Ahali party, Nika Gvaramia and Nika Melia; Lelo party leaders Badri Japaridze and Mamuka Khazaradze; Strategy Aghmashenebeli party leader Giorgi Vashadze; former MP Givi Targamadze; and former Defence Minister Irakli Okruashvili were also arrested.
Later, Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze were pardoned by President Mikheil Kavelashvili, while the other politicians from the same case, except for Zurab Japaridze, remain in prison.
They are expected to be released soon, but what will happen afterward is unclear, as in November the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a new case against several of them, including Girchi – More Freedom’s Japaridze, accusing them of ‘sabotage’ and other severe crimes.
OC Media
Japaridze is unsure how the Prosecutor General’s Office will act, but he believes that the state is placing opposition politicians under constant pressure with the new case, giving them the sense that they could be sent back to prison ‘at any moment’.
‘They are openly telling us that they’ll let you out for a short time so you can feel what freedom is, and then you have to decide: either be silent, or leave the country. There is no one who will do this’, he said.
Japaridze said that on Friday evening he plans to go to Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue and join the anti-government protest that has been held daily since November 2024, following the government’s EU U-turn.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
