Georgian Party, a newly launched opposition party, said on October 27 that there were purely political motives behind the arrest of brother of former public defender, Sozar Subari, who is one of the co-founders of the party.

Vakhtang Subeliani was arrested together with several others on October 26 in connection to the case involving, as the Interior Ministry said, fake invoice scam, which “caused considerable fiscal damage to the state budget.”

Several employees from four companies, involved in wholesale and retail trade of oil products, and six individual entrepreneurs were arrested in connection to this case, according to the Interior Ministry.

It said that Subeliani and a company he was working for, were indicating price, lower than the real one, in invoices. The Interior Ministry released extracts from a video testimony of a man, said to be a buyer, who claims that the company provided him with an invoice with lower price than he in fact paid for gasoline.

Vakhtang Subeliani's defense lawyer, Irma Chkadua, said on October 27, that no formal charges have yet been brought against her client.

Sozar Subari together with ex-defense minister Irakli Okruashvili, who lives in exile in France, and some other high-profile opposition figures co-founded new political party – the Georgian Party – this month. The party plans its inaugural congress on November 24 in Tbilisi.

"This [arrest of Subari's brother] is yet another fabricated case with falsified evidence... This fact can obviously be described as hostage-taking with a purpose of political persecution or political blackmailing. We state, that no matter of repressions and threats and no matter of blackmailing us with the arrests of our family members or co-thinkers, we will not make a single step back on our way towards our goal," Koka Guntsadze, co-founders of the Georgian Party, said on October 27.