Ten Sent to Pre-Trial Custody

The Tbilisi City Court ruled on March 25 to send ten men, most of them with arms charges and others on coup plotting, to a two-month pretrial custody pending investigation.

Seven out of ten are activists, or at least are associated with the Nino Burjanadze’s the Democratic Movement–United Georgia (DMUG) party – Davit Gograchadze; Zurab Avaliani; Roin Bugashvili; Vakhtang Narsia; Mamuka Shengelia; Giorgi Bolashvili and Giorgi Bolashvili (the two latter have same first and second names).

The eighth person, Giorgi Tsertsvadze, although not listed among DMUG’s party activists arrested on March 23, was also held on the same charges of illegal arms purchase and according to the investigation was acting under the instructions of Mamuka Shengelia.

Initial list of arrested persons disseminated by DMUG through the Public Defender’s Office on March 23, hours after their arrest, also includes two activists – Nugzar Gogrichidze and Vakhtang Tushmalashvili. However, no word has been said by the investigation so far about these two persons.

Two others out of ten sent to pretrial custody on March 25 are activists from a low-key Movement for Salvation of Georgia, whose case is not related with the one of the Burjanadze’s party activists, according to the Interior Ministry. Malkhaz Gvelukashvili and Lasha Chkhenkeli face charges related with coup plot and plotting terrorist acts.

Although these two groups of suspects are formally being investigated in separate cases, both of these cases are politically considered in the same context of planned April 9 protest rally, as according to the investigation, some of the suspects were discussing possibility of provoking disorders during the planned rally. At the same time the Interior Ministry said it was not claiming political conspiracy behind these cases or that any high-profile opposition leader was behind the alleged plot. The Interior Ministry, however, also says that the investigation is yet “on its very early stage.”

Meanwhile, some opposition politicians say that evidence put forth by the investigation are not convincing and suggest that the series of arrests aim at scaring off the public from the planned protest rallies with revoking possible scenarios similar to the one that developed in Georgia in early 1990s, when armed coup was followed by years of chaos.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)