Georgian opposition figure Giorgi Vashadze imprisoned to widen repression | News

The penalty sees most of the opposition leaders behind bars while the Georgian leader leading the criticism and the rivals.

A Georgian court sentenced a leader of the opposition to seven months in prison, while a repression of the party in power over its competitors continues.

The Tilisi court sentenced Giorgi Vashadze, head of the strategy manufacturer’s party on Tuesday for having omitted to cooperate with a commission investigating power by a former government.

The imprisonment means that almost all the main personalities of the country’s pro-European opposition have now been imprisoned. The repression increased the accusations against the Georgian Dream party in power which it trampled on democracy in the middle Ongoing protests in the wake of the disputed elections last year.

Vashadze, Vice-Minister of Justice from 2010 to 2012, was found guilty of having refused to cooperate with a government commission investigating on alleged abuses during his power under former president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Opposition figures claim that the commission is a cunning used by the government to stifle opponents.

Saakashvili is currently purge a sentence of 12 and a half years On the accusations which, according to the defense groups, are politically motivated.

Vashadze, whose party belongs to a coalition which arrived third in last year’s elections, also received a two -year ban on the public service.

Three other opposition figures were imprisoned on the same accusation.

“The Georgian dream regime has imprisoned all of Georgia. We are fighting for the release of the country,” said Vashadze before the verdict, said AFP news agency.

Tormented

Georgia has been accumulated by political disorders since Georgian Dream obtained another term of power October parliamentary elections.

The opposition continues to challenge the results, claiming fraud to the vote and the Russian interference.

Mass protests broke out, bringing together steam when the government announced in November hang the talks By joining the European Union in response to a resolution of the European Parliament rejecting the results of the elections, citing “significant irregularities”.

The demonstrations have continued every evening for more than 200 days, although they have decreased in size in recent months.

An eminent poet arrested

During a demonstration outside the Parliament in Tbilisi on Monday evening, the most famous poet in Georgia, Zviad Ratiani, was arrested for assaulting a police officer, press agencies reported.

He risks up to seven years in prison.

Ratiani was a very publicized figure in the protest movement and was arrested during a demonstration last year, spending a week in prison despite the serious injuries of the assault in detention, AFP reported.