Shukri Burchuladze: Discussing Paata Burchuladze's Plea Deal Is Premature

According to Shukri Burchuladze, the son of convicted singer Paata Burchuladze, it is still far too early to talk about whether his father will sign a plea agreement. He responded this way to a journalist's question on whether Paata Burchuladze will sign a plea deal.

Shukri Burchuladze says that there is injustice in the country, as people are first unlawfully arrested and then pressured into signing plea agreements.

"Generally, injustice reigns in the country, people are unlawfully arrested and then forced to sign plea agreements, to admit a crime they did not commit. During the "National Movement" I do not remember so many actors, so many doctors, so many journalists being unlawfully imprisoned. "Georgian Dream" is illegitimate, "Georgian Dream" is [more] repressive than the "National Movement"," said Shukri Burchuladze.

According to him, everyone should ask themselves how right it is that organizers sign plea agreements and thus gain their freedom, while other participants of the protest remain in prison.

"If you organize a rally, the police come and unlawfully detain someone, in any case you will also be responsible for those people's freedom. Therefore everyone should ask themselves whether it is good that, while others sit in prison, [organizers] sign plea deals and get released through such an unfair way. They admit to what they did not do and leave in prison those people who, they know, are not guilty either," said Shukri Burchuladze.