Allegations by the police about an armed group affiliated with ex-defense minister Irakli Okruashvili are “complete fiction” and “fabrication” not even worth to be seriously commented, Erosi Kitsmarishvili, political secretary of the opposition Georgian Party, said.

“The only serious issue that matters is [the fate] of arrested people, whose families are terrorized; two of them are members of the Georgian Party,” Kitsmarishvili said.

He said that although the Interior Ministry released video testimonies by some of the arrested men telling some details of the alleged plot, none of them pleaded guilty” at the court hearing on June 23, during which the court ruled pre-trial detentions for them. The Tbilisi City Court sent four accused to pre-trial detention on June 23.

“We all know how testimonies can be obtained from suspects by the police,” he said.

The Interior Ministry said on June 23, that its counter-intelligence service arrested eight men affiliated with the co-founder of the Georgian Party, Irakli Okruashvili, and charged them with formation of illegal armed group, allegedly intending to provide military back-up to the return of ex-defense minister Irakli Okruashvili back to Georgia during the street protest rallies in May. The Interior Ministry also said that seven other suspects in the same case still at large.