Convicted Opposition Politician Suspends Hunger Strike

Irakli Batiashvili, an activist from the opposition Forward Georgia party, suspended his hunger strike after the patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, visited him in jail and advised him to do so on June 2.

Batiashvili began the hunger strike on May 22, a day before the Tbilisi City Court found him guilty of involvement in last summer’s attempted coup in the Upper Kodori Gorge. For providing ?intellectual support? to rebel warlord Emzar Kvitsiani, he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

Batiashvili denied the allegations, saying that the ?show trial? was politically motivated.

Several opposition parties and human rights groups have joined together to campaign for his release.

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