2024 RT Amination Banner.gif

China Daily

News> World> Content
Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 22:36
Georgian police storm opposition party offices, detain its leader
By Reuters
Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 22:36 By Reuters

In this file photo taken on February 17, 2021 Nika Melia, one of the leaders of exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM), holds a briefing at the UNM headquarters in Tbilisi. (VANO SHLAMOV / AFP)

Georgian police stormed the party offices of opposition leader Nika Melia and detained him early on Tuesday, days after the prime minister resigned after a disagreement over whether to take the prominent politician into custody.

Melia, chairman of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party, had been accused of inciting violence at street protests in June 2019, a charge he has dismissed as politically motivated.

A court in the capital Tbilisi ordered last week that opposition leader Nika Melia be taken into custody for allegedly failing to post bail

A court in the capital Tbilisi ordered last week that he be taken into custody for allegedly failing to post bail. The Interior Ministry at the time announced it was postponing carrying out the order to detain Melia following the resignation of Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia.

ALSO READ: Georgian PM announces resignation

Footage from inside UNM offices published by the Sputnik Georgia outlet showed Melia barricaded inside a room with some of his supporters, while opposition activists clashed with police on the street.

“We call on both the representatives of political parties and their supporters to protest in a peaceful manner, to refrain from violent actions and not interfere with the court’s decision,” Sputnik Georgia quoted the Interior Ministry as saying, referring to the order to have Melia detained.

Gakharia, who stepped down on Feb 18, said his decision had been prompted by a disagreement with his own team over the order to detain Melia.

READ MORE: Ex-Georgia president jailed for three years in absentia

Gakharia had said that Melia’s detention was unacceptable if it threatened to fuel political divisions in the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people.


Share this story

CHINA DAILY
HONG KONG NEWS
OPEN
Please click in the upper right corner to open it in your browser !