U.S. State Department voices concern over arrests of opposition figures in Georgia
US State Department on opposition arrests in Georgia
The U.S. State Department has expressed deep concern over the arrests of opposition politicians in Georgia and the persecution of citizens critical of the ruling Georgian Dream government.
Speaking to the press service of the Formula TV channel, State Department representatives said that Ivanishvili’s government is using legislative amendments to silence critics and restrict freedom of expression.
“We are deeply concerned by the continuation and escalation of anti-democratic actions in Georgia, including the detention of opposition figures and the targeted harassment of civil society,” U.S. State Department officials told Georgia’s Formula TV.
We are seriously troubled by Georgia’s selective use of recently adopted legislation — including amendments to the law on grants — against actual or perceived critics of the government, unjustifiably restricting freedom of expression and the functioning of civil society.”
As U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said in Munich: “You cannot earn a democratic mandate by censoring or imprisoning your opponents, and you cannot win by ignoring your core electorate,” the statement added.
On 24 June, a Georgian court found Giorgi Vashadze, leader of the Strategy Agmashenebeli party, guilty of failing to appear before a parliamentary commission investigating the Saakashvili government’s actions from 2003 to 2012. He was sentenced to seven months in prison and banned from holding public office for two years.
A day earlier, on 23 June, a court widely seen as aligned with the ruling Georgian Dream party sentenced three other opposition leaders to prison: Mamuka Khazaradze (Lelo), Badri Japaridze (Strong Georgia), and Zurab Japaridze (Coalition for Change).
Nika Melia, Zurab Japaridze, Nika Gvaramia (Coalition for Change), and former defence minister Irakli Okruashvili are already behind bars for similarly refusing to testify before the commission.
