Kakha Kaladze on Saakashvili’s statement regarding Roin Shavadze: We have heard a direct admission concerning a murder; this is all very grave, and I believe investigative agencies should look into it once again

"This is a direct admission of what the 'bloody regime' under Saakashvili’s leadership truly was. We have heard a great deal and seen a great deal - though there is much we did not see, which might have been too traumatic for the public - but the majority of the country’s population knows very well what that 'bloody regime' - Saakashvili’s administration - represented." This is how Kakha Kaladze, General Secretary of 'Georgian Dream' and Mayor of Tbilisi, responded - while speaking to journalists - to a statement by Mikheil Saakashvili, circulated on social media, in which he discusses Sergeant Roin Shavadze.

In the Mayor’s assessment, this constitutes a direct admission regarding a murder - a matter that the relevant authorities should, once again, look into.

"I cannot fathom how one could treat one’s own people and one’s own country the way the 'National Movement' did - employing every conceivable dirty tactic. It was a brutal, profoundly unjust approach: robbery, the racketeering of businesses, and murders—after which people would simply vanish. We were living in a very harsh reality; consequently, in 2012, the majority of the country's population made a choice and threw their support behind 'Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia.' The statement we have just heard serves as yet another confirmation of the true nature of that bloody regime.

They are murderers—they were murderers then, and they remain so today. We have heard numerous accounts regarding specific cases detailing how detainees were treated. Now, we have heard a direct admission concerning a murder. This is all deeply disturbing, and I believe investigative bodies should look into it once again," stated Kakha Kaladze.

For context, the third President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, remarked in relation to the Roin Shavadze case that "he was a traitor—an employee of a Georgian state agency."

"I often hear it said in Batumi—while the legal proceedings are underway—that the murder of Roin Shavadze was never investigated. Do you know who Roin Shavadze was? He was a traitor, an employee of the Georgian structure, who in 2008 gave Russian intelligence the deployment of our troops, coordinates and bombing sites. If he had been convicted, he would have definitely been released in 2012 as a political prisoner," Mikheil Saakashvili said.