Ex-President Saakashvili says current gov’t was ‘on the verge of being overthrown’ in June
Tweet 
Share
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been charged with several alleged offences in Georgia, says that the current Georgian government was on the verge of being overthrown in June 2019, when police used water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse a rally in central Tbilisi.
Saakashvili told Mtavari Arkhi yesterday that the “moment [of the coup] was lost then.”
The Georgian Interior Ministry has launched an investigation around the statement, saying that Saakashvili’s words “gives ground for suspicion that he [Saakashvili] headed and participated in the attempted coup on June 20, 2019.”
The ministry says that other evidence will be collected and the statement will be given a legal assessment.
The current government has accused the opposition of causing confrontations during June protests in Tbilisi. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
People took to the streets in June to protest the presence of Russian MPs in the Georgian parliament building, with one of the MPs Sergey Gavrilov taking the seat of the Georgian parliament speaker.
The Georgian government stated that the protest was “justified.” However, then Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia said that the opposition transformed the peaceful protest into a violent clash with police and law enforcers were forced to disperse the rally.
Gakharia said that the country’s security was threatened and the government acted to protect statehood.
The movement Shame, which was created after the June 20 rally dispersal in central Tbilisi, has presented its action plan in a rally on Rustaveli Avenue later today, promising ‘to defeat the authoritarian leadership’ of the founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili.
A member of the United National Movement parliamentary opposition, MP Nika Melia has been charged with organising violence by a group, heading the group and participation in the violence during the June 20-21 rallies in Tbilisi, the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office says.
The protesters are leaving the demonstration in front of the parliament of Georgia in central Tbilisi as the law enforcers have used tear gas and rubber bullets. The number of injured is not officially announced yet, but Georgian media reports a dozen of people have been damaged.
Georgian opposition MPs have interrupted the 26th Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) after a Russian MP and president of the assembly, Sergey Gavrilov addressed the audience from the Georgian parliamentary speaker’s chair earlier today.