Two Georgian opposition leaders were ordered detained by courts in the South Caucasus country on Friday amid a crackdown on pro-European Union groups that have backed protests against the government’s freezing of EU accession talks.
Protests against the EU accession freeze were set to continue on Friday, with the ruling Georgian Dream party saying the demonstrations represented an attempt to stage a revolution.
Nika Gvaramia, leader of the country’s largest opposition party, the Coalition for Change, was given 12 days in prison on charges of petty hooliganism and for disobeying police. His party said on Wednesday that he had been violently and unjustly detained by police.
Another opposition figure, Aleko Elisashvili of the Strong Georgia party, was placed in pretrial detention for two months. Prosecutors charged him with assaulting a politician of the ruling Georgian Dream party, an allegation he denied.
Georgian media reported that Mr Elisashvili had been detained late on Wednesday, and transferred to hospital from pretrial detention, having been beaten during his arrest. Reuters could not independently confirm that he had been beaten.
Another eight opposition activists detained in recent days were charged on Friday with offences relating to “gang violence”, which carry jail terms of up to nine years, local media said.
Also on Friday, France, Germany and Poland said they would raise the topic of Georgia, where police have clashed violently with pro-EU protesters, at the next European Union foreign affairs meeting, with a view to taking possible measures against Georgia.
“The measures that have been taken by the authorities expose Georgia to both external and internal instability,” a joint statement issued by the countries’ ministers said.
Elsewhere, Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region and Kryvyi Rih on Friday killed at least nine people and wounded 20 more, regional officials said.
At least seven people were killed in Zaporizhzhia region, the governor said, in an attack that ignited a fire in a car repair service.
Four more were wounded, including two children, he said. Video from the site shared by the governor showed dense flames rising from a destroyed building and a burnt-out car.
Some settlements experienced power supply problems after the attack, the governor added.
Separately, a missile damaged an administrative building in Kryvyi Rih, also in the southeast of the country, killing two people, the governor said on Telegram. Rescuers continued searching at the site as one person was missing, he added.
At least 16 others, including a child, were injured, emergency services said, adding that residential houses were also damaged. – Reuters
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