On 26 July, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia arrested the former defence minister and leader of the Victorious Georgia political party Irakli Okruashvili. Charges were brought against him under Article 315 (conspiracy or insurrection aimed at changing the constitutional order through violence) and Article 225 (organizing, heading and participating in group violence) of the Georgian Criminal Code.

The investigation revealed that during a violent attack on the parliament building, Irakli Okruashvili, accompanied by other people, called on the demonstrators to violently enter the building along with him”, the Ministry official Mamuka Chelidze said. A video showing how Okruashvili talked to the masses was also made public.

Okruashvili returned to the political scene in Georgia a month ago when he formed the Victorious Georgia political party (Caucasus Watch reported). He also demanded from the Tbilisi City Court to freeze the Rustavi 2 TV shares after the European Court for Human Rights decided on the ownership issue of the broadcaster. He said that he would file a lawsuit against the owner Kibar Khalvashi as he violated the purchase deal which was signed between them in Germany in 2010.  

On the same day the Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze accused the opposition United National Movement (Okruashvili’s former party) of organizing unrest at the rallies in Tbilisi on June 20-21, and the following economic downturn and record depreciation of the national currency. “Adventurers like United National Movement and its leader, have done everything in the recent months to stop the positive dynamics that we had in the economy and were the source of this depreciation,” he said.