Nika Gvaramia, an imprisoned opposition leader who was recently arrested after refusing to appear before a Georgian Dream parliamentary commission, has been summoned to the same commission for a second time from prison.
Gvaramia received the corresponding letter in Rustavi Prison on Tuesday from the commission’s chair, ruling party MP Tea Tsulukiani. Gvaramia’s party, Ahali, stated that their position remained unchanged and that they did not intend to cooperate with the commission.
‘At no point do we intend to accept the regime’s rules, grant it even the slightest legitimacy, or cooperate with the so-called commission, which in reality serves to betray national interests and rewrite history’, the party wrote on Facebook.
On Friday, the Tbilisi City Court ordered the pre-trial detention of Gvaramia for refusing to pay bail in his trial over his defiance of the parliamentary commission targeting the opposition.
Two other opposition leaders, Nika Melia and Zurab Girchi Japaridze, have also been jailed for refusing to pay bail over the same issue. Former Defence Minister Irakli Okruashvili was also arrested on similar charges.
The commission was ostensibly set up in February to investigate the United National Movement’s (UNM) time in power, following repeated pledges by Georgian Dream to punish the former ruling party.
Initially, its mandate was limited to the UNM’s years in government (2003–2012), but it was later expanded to cover the period up to the present day — effectively allowing the ruling party to target virtually any opposition figure.
Like numerous other opposition figures, Japaridze, Okruashvili, and Melia boycotted the commission, refusing to recognise its legitimacy, as well as that of the current parliament, which has also been boycotted by major opposition parties following the disputed 2024 parliamentary elections.
The article of the criminal code under which the cases were launched against those who ignored the commission stipulates penalties including a fine or up to one year in prison, along with a ban on holding public office or engaging in certain activities for up to three years.
Also on Tuesday, it was announced that the commission had re-summoned Lelo party leader Mamuka Khazaradze, against whom a criminal case was also launched for failing to appear previously. He was ordered to pay ₾50,000 ($18,400) bail, which he has since paid.
Khazaradze said he will not attend the commission this time either.
‘I know you want to arrest me. Don’t bother — you won’t scare me anyway! The fight against the Russian regime will continue until the end!’ he wrote on social media.
Among the politicians re-summoned by the commission was also Giorgi Gakharia, former Minister of Internal Affairs and Prime Minister, and currently the leader of the opposition party For Georgia. Unlike other opposition members, Gakharia attended the commission following his initial summons.
The commission aims to question Gakharia further about the construction of a checkpoint at the disputed South Ossetian border area in 2019, which, according to Georgian Dream, was improperly agreed upon with other state bodies and posed a risk of escalation.
Georgian Dream has openly declared that it intends to use the findings of the commission to file a case with the Constitutional Court seeking to ban all the country’s main opposition parties.
The ruling party maintained that all major opposition groups operating in the country are satellites of the UNM and should no longer be allowed to exist.
Mariam Nikuradze
