Zurab Japaridze, one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change, was interviewed by the magistrate judge as part of the investigation into the possible falsification of the parliamentary elections. As Japaridze said, the prosecutor's questions primarily focused on a video in which he discusses the alleged forgery scheme.
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"They primarily asked about the video I recorded in which I discussed fraud schemes, and they were interested in the evidence. Several times, I had to refer to the websites where any citizen of Georgia, not just the prosecutor's office, can find a wealth of evidence regarding what happened on election day.
Does anyone believe that the prosecutor's office will actually investigate this? This is just a continuation of election fraud - here we are being asked to provide evidence to the prosecutor's office, which should be the one searching for it, and which is already all over the media," Japaridze told journalists.
According to the case prosecutor, Ketevan Chachava, the information provided by Zurab Japaridze to the investigation "was mainly based on his personal assessments and information from public sources."
"He did not provide any specific facts, names, or details that would advance the investigation," the prosecutor noted.
On October 30, the Prosecutor's Office launched a criminal case for election fraud following a complaint from the Central Election Commission (CEC). A day earlier, the CEC had announced that accusations of "alleged election fraud" involving the president and representatives of opposition political parties had reached a broad scale, warranting a "complex and objective investigation." President Salome Zourabichvili was the first to be summoned for questioning by the investigative agency. Zourabichvili refused to appear at the prosecutor's office and called for a "political settlement with the president."
As part of the ongoing investigation, Mamuka Khazaradze and Natia Mezvrishvili, leaders of the Strong Georgia coalition and the Garkharia for Georgia party, as well as Londa Toloraia, spokesperson for the My Vote coalition of monitoring organizations, were questioned on November 6 at the Tbilisi City Court before a magistrate judge.
