Georgian police have raided the offices of an opposition party and arrested its leader in an apparent attempt to quash a wave of mass protests triggered by the governing party’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union.
Protesters on Wednesday night gathered for a seventh consecutive night of protests, facing off against riot police who have used water cannon and teargas to disperse them on previous nights. Protesters have thrown fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the Georgian capital’s central boulevard.
The Coalition for Change opposition party said that police had raided its offices on Wednesday and detained its leader, Nika Gvaramia.
It published a video on X showing Gvaramia being carried by the arms and legs by several men down some steps. The party said that Gvaramia, a 48-year-old media manager-turned politician, had been “thrown into a detention car as he was physically assaulted and unconscious”. It was not possible to independently verify the report.
Georgian media reported that police had also raided the offices of several other opposition groups and non-government organisations. Aleko Elisashvili, a leader of the Strong Georgia opposition party, a leader of the youth protest movement Dafioni, and at least six other members of opposition political parties were also detained.
Local media cited the country’s interior ministry as saying seven people had been arrested on charges of “organising and leading group violence”, an offence which carries up to nine years in prison.
The ministry said it had searched the houses of six people, and seized items including air rifles, fireworks and molotov cocktails.
Prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the Georgian Dream party said the raids targeted those who encouraged violence during protests in an attempt to topple his government. “I wouldn’t call this repression; it is more of a preventive measure than repression,” he said.
The ruling Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the disputed 26 October election, which was widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s EU aspirations. The opposition and the pro-western president have accused the governing party of rigging the vote with neighbouring Russia’s help and boycotted parliament sessions.
Mass opposition protests sparked by the vote gained new momentum after the governing party’s decision on Thursday to put the EU accession talks on hold. Around 300 people have been detained and dozens, including protestors and police, injured in clashes outside the parliament building in central Tbilisi.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili refused to recognise the official election results and contested them in the constitutional court, which rejected her appeal on Tuesday. Zourabichvili, who plays a largely ceremonial role, has declared that she would stay on the job even after her six-year term ends later this month to lead the opposition demand for a new parliamentary election.
Zourabichvili urged the country’s western partners to respond to Wednesday’s wave of police raids of opposition groups by putting “strong pressure on a ruling party that is driving the country over the cliff!” “Do not be late!” she wrote on social platform X.
The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on the condition that it meet the bloc’s recommendations, but put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June after the passage of a “foreign influence” law that was widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms. It requires organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organisations critical of the government.
The Georgian government’s announcement of the EU accession talks’ suspension came hours after the European parliament adopted a resolution criticising October’s election as neither free nor fair.
On Monday, the EU reiterated its “serious concerns about the continuous democratic backsliding of the country.”
Kobakhidze said Tuesday that his government is willing to open EU accession talks if the bloc ends its “blackmail.”
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
