Georgia has jailed four key opposition figures within days as part of a monthslong crackdown on dissent that followed a disputed election last October in the South Caucasus country.
Nearly all leaders of Georgia’s pro-Western opposition are now behind bars, as protests continue against the ruling Georgian Dream party and its decision last year to halt Georgia’s bid to join the European Union. The demonstrators, who gather daily in the capital, Tbilisi, also say that the vote on Oct. 26 that handed Georgian Dream another term in power was not free or fair.
On Tuesday, politician Giorgi Vashadze of the Strategy Agmashenebeli party was sentenced to eight months in prison for refusing to testify in an official probe that Georgian Dream’s critics call an act of political revenge.
