Court sentences opposition Coalition for Change member to 12 days in prison

Gela Khasaia, a member of the opposition group Coalition for Change, has been sentenced to 12 days of administrative detention. The Interior Ministry accused him of disobeying a police officer’s request.

Khasaia was arrested directly in the courtroom after the verdict was delivered at the Tbilisi City Court on Wednesday.

On 31 March, Khasaia was detained in the vicinity of parliament. The police requested a search of his bag, calling it an ‘external search’.

Khasaia replied that he agreed to have his bag examined from the outside. RFE/RL reported at the time that Khasaia was trying to figure out why they were requesting a search of his bag when he was suddenly detained.

According to local media, police on the scene told journalists that Khasaia was being taken to the police station and was not detained. Later, the Interior Ministry told the media that Khasaia was detained under Article 173 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for disobeying police.

Khasaia was released from pre-trial detention on 2 April.

One of the leaders of Coalition for Change, Zurab Japaridze, told TV Pirveli on Wednesday that the purpose of Khasaia’s imprisonment was ‘an attempt to intimidate others so that fewer people will come out to protest’.

Nevertheless, activist Luka Chokhonelidze told TV Pirveli that people will fight for justice and freedom until the end.

‘It means that if fines fail to stop the population and if fines do not cause enough discomfort for the population to stop and not protest, then they have already moved on to arrests’, he said.

‘However, I am afraid that there are not enough pre-trial detention centres and enough cameras to catch so many activists and put them in prison’.

‘The end result will be this: either we all end up in prison with the political prisoners, or they will be on Rustaveli Avenue with us and celebrate the victory. So, these are cheap attempts that the [ruling] Georgian Dream [party] is making and intends to make in the future’, Chokhonelidze said.

Several opposition politicians have been fined over the last month, mostly for not appearing for questioning at the parliament’s temporary investigation commission.

The commission, created by Georgian Dream in February, was officially tasked with investigating the former ruling United National Movement (UNM) party’s time in power from 2003–2012. Its creation followed repeated pledges by the ruling party to punish the UNM for its ‘anti-state’ and ‘criminal’ activities.

However, the commission later expanded its mandate to cover the post-2012 period, targeting the entire opposition — which were labelled by Georgian Dream as ‘UNM satellites’ or the ‘collective UNM’.

Georgian Dream further threatened to use the commission’s findings to petition the Constitutional Court for a ban on all those parties.

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