TBILISI, September 12 – Georgia’s State Security Service carried out dramatic arrests in the Black Sea city of Batumi, detaining the leader of the opposition National Movement (UNM), Levan Khabeishvili, along with party member Murtaz Zodelava.
Former defense minister Juansher Burchuladze, a close ally of ex-prime minister Irakli Garibashvili, was also taken into custody.
The security agency said the case involves allegations of publicly promising bribes, acts of violence, concealing property and other charges. Officials accused Khabeishvili of offering USD 200,000 as a bribe to police officers in exchange for confidential information and for refusing to take part in training exercises. He was detained on a judge’s order under Article 339 of the criminal code, which carries a possible sentence of four to seven years in prison.
According to the authorities, Zodelava tried to hide Khabeishvili’s mobile phone during the arrest and resisted officers, allegedly assaulting one of them. The State Security Service also said that Burchuladze’s family purchased a property worth EUR 544,000 in Spain’s Malaga province in January 2025, allegedly to conceal the origin of illicit assets. Officials claim the former minister laundered more than 1.59 million lari in illegal income and failed to declare the Spanish property in his March asset declaration.
The arrests provoked strong reactions inside UNM, which has called on people to take to the streets on October 4. Khabeishvili himself told reporters at the moment of detention that the Security Service and its head Mamuka Mdinaradze were “carrying out an order” and urged supporters not to be afraid.
Georgia’s jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili also reacted online, describing Khabeishvili and Zodelava as “the real leaders of the opposition” and calling for “general mobilization and going on the offensive.”
UNM member Ani Tsitlidze publicly declared that she and her colleagues would double the USD 200,000 sum mentioned in the charges, offering $400,000 as a reward to any official who refused to follow what she called illegal orders from ruling party figure Bidzina Ivanishvili.
