A Georgian court has sentenced an opposition leader to seven months in prison, as a crackdown by the governing party on its rivals continues.
The Tbilisi court imposed the sentence on Giorgi Vashadze, a leader of the Strategy Builder party, on Tuesday for failing to cooperate with a commission investigating abuse of power by a former government.
The jailing means that nearly all of the country’s major pro-European opposition figures have now been imprisoned. The crackdown has increased accusations against the ruling Georgian Dream party that it is trampling on democracy amid ongoing protests in the wake of last year’s disputed elections.
Vashadze, deputy minister of justice from 2010 to 2012, was found guilty of refusing to cooperate with a government commission investigating alleged abuse during its time in power under former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Opposition figures say the commission is a ruse used by the government to stifle opponents.
Saakashvili is currently serving a 12-and-a-half-year sentence on charges that rights groups say are politically motivated.
Vashadze, whose party belongs to a coalition that came third in last year’s election, was also handed a two-year ban on holding public office.
Three other opposition figures have been jailed on the same charge.
“The Georgian Dream regime has imprisoned the whole of Georgia. We are fighting for the country’s liberation,” Vashadze said before the verdict, the AFP news agency reported.
Turmoil
Georgia has been racked by political turmoil since Georgian Dream secured a further term in power in October’s parliamentary election.
The opposition continues to dispute the results, claiming vote fraud and Russian interference.
Mass protests broke out, gathering steam when the government announced in November it was suspending talks on joining the European Union in response to a European Parliament resolution rejecting the results of the elections, citing “significant irregularities”.
The protests have continued nightly for more than 200 days, although they have shrunk in size in recent months.
Prominent poet arrested
At a protest outside parliament in Tbilisi on Monday night, Georgia’s most celebrated poet, Zviad Ratiani, was arrested on charges of assaulting a police officer, news agencies reported.
He faces up to seven years in prison.
Ratiani has been a high-profile figure in the protest movement and was arrested at a protest last year, spending a week in prison despite having serious injuries from assaults in custody, AFP reported.
