The plenum, composed of seven judges by the agency’s description and chaired by Revaz Nadaraia, announced at 14:00 that it had rejected the recusal motions filed by the respondent parties, some against the whole plenum and some against individual judges, Interpressnews reported, without giving the motions’ grounds. The suit, signed by 88 Georgian Dream members of parliament, asks the court to declare unconstitutional, under Article 23(3) of the constitution, Unity (the National Movement’s bloc), the Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia, the Federalist Party and Gakharia for Georgia. Georgian Dream argues that the parties’ conduct since 2019 amounts to attempts to overthrow the constitutional order by force, the ground that article names, as CAW reported on 21 October, when the hearings opened in Batumi for 21, 22 and 23 October.
Ana Tsitlidze of the National Movement moved to summon Mikheil Saakashvili and Levan Khabeishvili as witnesses, since, she said, the suit covers 2003 to 2012 and Saakashvili is “the primary target of this lawsuit”. Khatia Dekanoidze, a leader of the National Movement who had moved to summon Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream’s honorary chairman, was expelled by Nadaraia for the duration of the proceedings for making political statements, by the agency’s account at 15:26. The court’s answer on the witnesses is absent from the agency’s reports of the day.
The suit, signed by 88 Georgian Dream members of parliament, asks the court to declare unconstitutional, under Article 23(3) of the constitution, Unity (the National Movement’s bloc), the Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia, the Federalist Party and Gakharia for Georgia.
Germany’s Federal Foreign Office spokesperson Kathrin Deschauer said in the evening that the case “represents yet another step in a trend that is increasingly distancing the country from the European Union and weakening its domestic democracy” and that Berlin would convey its concerns to the Georgian side.
Zurabashvili’s appointment was announced at a government briefing at 14:15. Kobakhidze placed the peaceful resolution of the conflict with Russia, the preservation of trade and economic relations and the humanitarian dialogue among “our country’s most significant priorities” and said that in the absence of diplomatic relations the special representative’s post, “alongside the Geneva format”, serves those objectives. Zurabashvili was deputy foreign minister from 2024 and first deputy minister from 1 July 2025.
Asked whether a new phase with Moscow was beginning, Kobakhidze said: “No, in reality, no new phase is beginning. Our section within the Swiss Embassy has been actively operating all along.” The appointment was not prompted by the embargo on certain Georgian companies’ products, he said, a reference to the halt Rospotrebnadzor put this month on wine, cognac, beer and mineral water from six Georgian producers, which CAW reported, and on diplomatic relations “there is a specific barrier” and “our stance remains unchanged”. He spoke of the need “to re-appoint a special representative”, which implies a predecessor, whom he did not name.
The two decisions of 21 October came from the same government on the same afternoon: a court case to remove five parties from Georgian politics, and a named representative for Moscow in a post Kobakhidze said serves the peaceful resolution of the conflict, trade and humanitarian ties, with no new phase beginning.