Parliament to Develop Law against ‘Political Extremism’

Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Legal Issues Levan Bezhashvili said on July 31 that a new draft law will be developed to enhance law enforcers’ capabilities to fight against political extremism.

“Nobody is going to bring charges for expressing political ideas. [The law] will only apply to those providing active support to armed coups that could theoretically be staged in the country,” Bezhashvili told Rustavi 2 television.
 
MP Bezhashvili explained that “political support means calls for changing the current constitutional system, holding of rallies, or other actions which aim at giving political justification to armed coups.”

Some opposition parties have already condemned the proposal.

“This is what exactly [ex-President] Eduard Shevardnadze wanted to adopt to mount pressure on the opposition,” Tina Khidasheli of the opposition Republican Party said.
 
“They want to label Shalva Natelashvili [leader of the opposition Labor Party] and Davit Gamkrelidze [leader of the New Rights opposition party] as enemies of the state and initiate criminal changes against them,” MP Manana Nachkebia of New Rights party said on July 31.

“A law is being prepared especially against me, so that every statement of mine can become a reason for [my] arrest,” Shalva Natelashvili said at a news conference on July 31.

The leaders of the Labor and New Rights opposition parties both strongly condemned the government’s recent operation in Kodori Gorge against rebel warlord Emzar Kvitsiani.

Irakli Batiashvili of the opposition Forward Georgia party was arrested on July 29 and charged with having links to a coup attempt staged by rebel warlord Kvitsiani which involved, as prosecutors put it, “giving recommendations and instructions” to Kvitsiani.

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