Prepared by Messenger Staff
UNM Leader Levan Khabeishvili Arrested on Bribery Charges
Georgia's State Security Service (SSSG) arrested opposition leader Levan Khabeishvili of the United National Movement on September 11, accusing him of offering bribes to law enforcement officers in exchange for defying orders during anti-government protests planned for October 4.
Khabeishvili was detained outside the TV Formula building in central Tbilisi by plainclothes officers and taken to the SSSG headquarters. Another UNM member, Murtaz Zodelava, was also arrested at the scene.
Emzar Gagnidze, head of the SSSG's Anti-Corruption Agency, said Khabeishvili had repeatedly promised 200,000 US dollars to Special Task Department officers who refused to disperse protesters or provided him with secret information. "He considered it feasible to bribe police officers because every method should be used to change the government," Gagnidze told reporters.
Khabeishvili has openly called for what he describes as a "peaceful revolution" during the October 4 municipal elections, which his party and other opposition groups are boycotting. In a July speech, he pledged financial rewards to officers who "stand on the people's side" and expose the government.
The SSSG charged Khabeishvili under Article 339 of the criminal code, which covers promising or offering money to an official for unlawful acts and carries a penalty of four to seven years in prison.
Zodelava was accused of resisting arrest and assaulting an officer after allegedly trying to hide his mobile phone. He faces two to five years in prison if convicted.
UNM Launches Regional Campaign, Bokuchava Calls for October 4 Street Protests
The opposition United National Movement (UNM) announced it will begin a regional campaign on September 12, urging supporters to join mass demonstrations instead of voting in the October 4 local elections.
Speaking at a briefing outside the State Security Service, UNM chair Tina Bokuchava said the party would take its message to "every city and every village" and rally Georgians around the national flag. "We will go to every city, every village, bring the flag of Georgia so that the flag of Georgia will once again proudly flutter on Rustaveli Avenue, and this flag will proudly flutter on October 4," she stated.
Bokuchava appealed directly to citizens to boycott polling stations and take to the streets. "Do not go to the special points of the Russian special operation, which Ivanishvili calls polling stations. Instead, come out with us, with the honest and fighting people. Come out to the streets, together let us return Georgia," she said.
The opposition leader also addressed the recent arrest of UNM member Levan Khabeishvili, who has been charged with offering bribes to law enforcement officers. Bokuchava dismissed the accusations as groundless and echoed his controversial promise. "Levan Khabeishvili was telling members of the public that to every State Security Service employee, or any other law enforcement officer who does not raise a hand against a peaceful protester, who does not act against the legislation of Georgia, who does not use violence against the people, he was offering 200,000 US dollars as a reward," she said. "Today here, on behalf of the United National Movement, I personally repeat: after Ivanishvili's Russian regime falls, we once again promise the State Security Service employees, representatives of all law enforcement structures, that yes, you will receive a reward in the amount of 200,000 US dollars. We are making an absolutely identical offer, and I personally, in order to expose how unfounded this charge is."
The State Security Service said earlier that Khabeishvili was arrested for publicly promising cash rewards to officials as a bribe, an offense that carries a prison sentence under Georgia's criminal code.
