Tbilisi City Court (/court.ge)
Five former senior officials have been convicted of attempting to cover up the 2004 killing of 19-year-old Buta Robakidze by police. The verdict came after over a decade of campaigning by the victim’s family and rights groups, who had claimed the case had been shelved. [Read more…]
Police set up makeshift barricades with buses, fire engines, and police pickup trucks. (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
Opposition protesters clashed with police on Sunday after they were prevented from entering the east Georgian city of Telavi, where Salome Zurabishvili was being sworn in as president. In her inauguration speech, Georgia’s fifth president called for national unity and an end to ‘political confrontations’. [Read more…]
Sunday UNM rally (Grigol Vashadze/Facebook)
Leaders and supporters of the United National Movement-led opposition coalition gathered in central Tbilisi on Sunday demanding the government negotiate with the opposition before the president-elect’s inauguration day.
Salome Zurabishvili and Grigol Vashadze (RFE/RL)
Georgia’s Election Administration has set the date for the second round presidential election for 28 November — a Wednesday. The midweek date was heavily criticised by the opposition and several major civil society groups.
Salome Zurabishvili (centre) with her daughter Ketevan Gorjestani and son Teimuraz Gorjestani (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
Georgian Dream–endorsed presidential candidate Salome Zurabishvili and members of her family received SMS and audio death threats from ‘former military officers’, she announced on Monday. [Read more…]
Grigol Vashadze (Facebook)
The opposition candidate in Georgia’s second round presidential election, the United National Movement’s (UNM) Grigol Vashadze, has promised snap parliamentary elections if elected. Meanwhile, chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili promised ‘remarkable’ changes ‘within a year’. [Read more…]
Presidential candidates Salome Zurabishvili and Grigol Vashadze casting their ballots (Mari Nikuradze, Facebook)
Georgia’s political scene is heating up as the country braces for a presidential run-off election. After Georgian Dream–endorsed Salome Zurabishvili failed to win a majority in the first round, members of the ruling party warned of ‘violence’ or a ‘civil war’ if the opposition’s Grigol Vashadze comes out on top. [Read more…]
The Omega Tapes scandal, and now secret recordings of former official Mirza Subeliani, suggest Georgia’s government has serious questions to answer.
With the date now set for Georgia’s presidential elections, it’s still not clear who will run and who will not. In what is set to be the country’s last direct presidential election, could a political upset challenge Georgian Dream’s dominance? [Read more…]
Mikheil Saakashvili (1tv.ge)
Tbilisi City Court sentenced former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to eight years in prison in absentia on Thursday, commuted to six years due to a 2012 amnesty, for ordering the attack on businessman and opposition MP Valeri Gelashvili in 2005. Saakashvili was found guilty on two counts: exceeding his official authorities with the application of violence and arms, and organising intentional damage that afflicted grave bodily harm dangerous to one’s life, irreversibly altering one’s face. The Court also banned him from public office for two years and three months. [Read more…]
