Georgian opposition leader dragged from party offices by police

One of Georgia’s opposition leaders has been dragged from his party offices by police, after the prime minister vowed that the organisers of a week of pro-EU protests, which he called “violent actions”, would face justice.

Nika Gvaramia, 48, a leader from one of four opposition groups, was carried away by his arms and legs by police officers from his party HQ in a side street next to parliament in the capital Tbilisi.

Demonstrations have been held every night since last Thursday, after ruling party Georgian Dream said it was halting the country’s bid to start talks on joining the EU.

More than 330 protesters have been arrested and rights groups say many have been beaten in detention.

However, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has become increasingly strident in his condemnation of the protesters, accusing them of spreading “liberal fascism”.

Protests had initially erupted after a contested election that monitoring groups said was marred by a string of violations.

But they burst into life last Thursday when Kobakhidze’s increasingly authoritarian Georgian Dream party said it was suspending the country’s bid to start talks on joining the EU. Two days later, the US suspended Georgia’s long-sought strategic partnership.

Georgian Dream has enacted increasingly authoritarian laws targeting civil society and LGBT groups as well as freedom of speech, and opposition parties accuse the party of moving Georgia back into the sphere of influence of neighbour Russia.

“Politicians that organised violence but hid in offices will not be able to evade responsibility for the events that have unfolded over the past days,” Kobakhidze said in a briefing on Wednesday.

Georgia’s interior ministry says more than 100 officers have been hurt by fireworks, rocks and other projectiles, however the country’s ombudsman for human rights has accused the police of exercising brutality and torture toward protesters.

In the early hours of Monday, Nika Gvaramia who is one of the leaders of Coalition for Change, told the BBC that the protesters had no other option but to take to the streets, because the alternative was the elimination of their country, “not just in Russia’s zone of influence but some kind of puppet territory”.

He also predicted, accurately, that his party HQ would soon be raided by Georgia’s authorities.

Gvaramia’s party was not the only group targeted by authorities. Offices from other parties in his Coalition for Change alliance were raided and a member detained. The alliance came second in the disputed 26 October election.

Meanwhile members of other opposition parties, Strong Georgia and United National Movement, said several of their members had been taken away.

Authorities raided the home of an activist from Daitove, a large anti-government Facebook group that helps detained protesters, and then moved to the home of its co-founder Nancy Woland. They also targeted activists from other movements.

Gvaramia, 46, was taken initially to a detention centre of the outskirts of Tbilisi where many of the 300 detained protesters have been held, and then on to another detention centre in Marneuli, south of the capital, reports say.

The former head of an opposition TV channel, Gvaramia spent 13 months in jail for abuse of authority, but he was pardoned in June 2023 by pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili.

Amnesty International said at the time the charges against him were groundless and politically motivated.