Georgian opposition politician Kuprava detained over video on upcoming election protest
The State Security Service of Georgia (SSG) have detained Zviad Kuprava, a member of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party, over a video related to the anti-government protest planned for 4 October.
The SSG announced Kuprava’s detention on Wednesday. The video that led to the case against him was published on his Facebook page the day prior.
On 4 October, Georgia is set to hold municipal elections, which many opposition parties are boycotting. On the same day, several opposition figures have planned a demonstration in central Tbilisi, branding it a ‘peaceful revolution’ aimed at toppling Georgian Dream’s government.
In the video address, Kuprava said, ‘Hundreds have decided to topple [Georgian Dream founder Bidzina] Ivanishvili on 4 October — myself included, adding that ‘our tactical aim is to foil the Russian special operation on 4 October’.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
Like several other opposition figures, Kuprava, who is a Tbilisi City Council member, often refers to the municipal elections as a Russian special operation.
‘How will we do this? On 4 October there will be 500 special-operation points opened across Tbilisi and more than 3,000 across Georgia’, Kuprava stated.
‘From the morning, both in groups and individually, we will start moving across the city and we will definitely breach at least one of those 500 special operation points, after which it will trigger a domino effect and Ivanishvili will fall’, he said in the video.
He added that he was willing to compromise and refrain from taking to the streets on 4 October if, by that date, imprisoned ex-president and UNM founder ‘Mikheil Saakashvili and political prisoners were released’.
The SSG said Kuprava’s call amounted to an appeal to disrupt the elections and overthrow the government.
According to the agency, Kuprava’s references to the elections as a ‘Russian special operation’ and to polling stations as ‘special-operation points’ were an attempt to disguise the criminal nature of his calls.
According to the statement, Kuprava is also accused of resisting SSG representatives during his detention.
Following his arrest, opposition-leaning TV Pirveli released a video showing Kuprava sitting in a car, saying that his detention operation was beginning and that people around the vehicle were threatening to smash the window. In the second part of the video, one person is seen breaking the car’s side window from the outside.
Responding to the detention of their member, the UNM described the incident as a continuation of ‘politically motivated repression’.
This is not the first time Kuprava has been detained. In 2019, he spent eight months in prison on charges of contempt of court.
Prior to Kuprava’s detention, the authorities detained Levan Khabeishvili, the UNM’s Political Council chair and one of the most vocal proponents of the 4 October ‘peaceful revolution’.
Similarly to Kuprava, his detention on 11 September stemmed from an interview he gave the day before he was arrested, in which he offered riot police $200,000 not to disperse protesters — a statement the SSG classified as a bribe.
Khabeishvili was later charged with a second offence, calling for the overthrow of the government. Altogether, he faces up to seven years in prison.
The ruling party has repeatedly dismissed the 4 October plan as unserious, but Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has nonetheless warned that ‘anyone who breaks the law’ on that day will face a police response.
OC Media
