Georgian opposition politician Khoshtaria remains in detention after refusing to pay bail in protest
The Tbilisi City Court granted the opposition Droa party leader Elene Khoshtaria bail pending trial for writing ‘Russian Dream’ on a Georgian Dream campaign banner, but she refused to pay bail in protest and remained in pre-trial detention.
In a letter sent from her detention center on Thursday, the day of her court hearing, Khoshtaria wrote that ‘paying bail to secure release is not freedom; it is a ransom to open the prison door, which, of course, I will not pay’.
‘My detention is unlawful, as is that of countless other free spirits’, she said.
‘No one should think that being in prison is my choice. My choice is to never do anything in this struggle that would go against my conscience or that I could not explain to you’, she added.
Considering her trial a farce, Khoshtaria also refused both the right to legal counsel and to attend her court hearings.
Koshtaria was detained on Monday, after having published a video showing her making the inscription on Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze’s re-election banner.
Kaladze is running for his third term in the 4 October municipal elections. Alongside serving as mayor, he is also the secretary-general of the ruling Georgian Dream party, which opponents often call the ‘Russian Dream’, accusing it of bringing the country closer to Russia.
Khoshtaria’s actions were in solidarity with 23-year-old Megi Diasamidze, who was detained on 11 September for spray painting the same words on another of Kaladze’s banners. Diasamidze was later released on bail pending her trial.
Both Khoshtaria and Diasamidze are being investigated for damaging or destroying property, an offence that carries penalties ranging from fines, community service, or up to five years in prison.
Khoshtaria’s party is part of one of the largest opposition groupings, the Coalition for Change, whose leading figures — Zurab Japaridze, Nika Gvaramia, and Nika Melia — were all arrested over the summer and sentenced to months in prison for boycotting Georgian Dream’s controversial parliamentary commission.
Until recently, Khoshtaria was the coalition’s only leader free from detention.
Kaladze’s campaign headquarters, where the activist and politician wrote on his banners, has been a site of confrontation since its opening on 4 September. Participants in the daily protests that began after the government’s decision to suspend Georgia’s EU membership bid often gather there.
On 8 September, supporters of the ruling party attacked the gathering, leaving several demonstrators injured.
Robin Fabbro
