Ex-President Saakashvili slams Georgia’s leadership over detentions of opposition figures

Georgia’s third President Mikheil Saakashvili has criticized the recent wave of political arrests in the country, comparing the government’s actions unfavorably to those of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

“While Lukashenko is releasing political prisoners, these people are arresting more and more politicians and ordinary active citizens... but soon the doors will burst open, and everyone will end up where they belong,” he wrote in social media post.

Saakashvili’s remarks come shortly after Georgian opposition leader Zurab Japaridze, a key figure in the Coalition for Change, was sentenced to seven months in prison on June 23 for defying a parliamentary investigative commission.

On the same day, Badri Japaridze and Mamuka Khazaradze, co-founders of the Lelo for Georgia party and leaders of the Lelo-Strong Georgia coalition, were also sentenced to eight months in prison for the same offense. The court further banned all three from holding public office for the next two years.

The investigative commission in question is led by ruling party MP and former justice minister Tea Tsulukiani, and is tasked with examining alleged crimes committed during the United National Movement's time in power (2003–2012). The opposition has denounced the rulings as politically motivated, accusing the government of weaponizing the judiciary against its opponents.