UNM’s Pavlenishvili calls rally to mark five years since ex-Pres Saakashvili’s imprisonment

Irakli Pavlenishvili, head of the collegial governing body of Georgia’s opposition United National Movement, has called on supporters to gather in Tbilisi on 1 October to mark five years since former President Mikheil Saakashvili was imprisoned.

Pavlenishvili said the rally would begin at 19:00 near the Rike Park Music Theatre and Exhibition Hall. He said those who recognise Saakashvili’s importance as the current “decisive struggle” against the government should attend the gathering.

“Today, both inside and outside the country, no one has any doubts that those nine years were years of construction, while the past 14 years have been years of destruction,” Pavlenishvili said.

He credited Saakashvili’s government with building state institutions, developing tourism and advancing Georgia’s European integration, as well as restoring Georgian families’ belief in a strong Georgia.

Pavlenishvili also alleged that Saakashvili had been imprisoned on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin and by what he called Ivanishvili’s “puppet regime”. 

Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s president from 2004 to 2013, was arrested on 1 October 2021 after returning to Georgia. He is serving prison sentences following convictions in several criminal cases, which he and his supporters have described as politically motivated.