The Daily Beat: 5 June
Human rights defenders and civic activists arrested for holding paper banners at the Friday rally were released after 48 hours in pre-trial detention. Saba Brachveli, Eduard Marikashvili, and Nika Romanadze were the last to leave the detention facilities, while two others were released earlier. “Our country cannot be a place where people are sent to prison for holding a blank piece of paper,” Saba Brachveli from the Open Society Georgia told journalists upon his release, adding that he disagreed with the protocols drawn up by police and will say the same at the trials.
The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi also addressed the arrests of civic activists, saying that the embassy is closely monitoring the cases of those arrested and detained on June 2 while peacefully demonstrating in front of the Parliament.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Defense Minister Juansher Burchuladze met with Hungarian Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, discussing strategic partnership issues and future cooperation prospects. According to the prime minister’s office, alongside defense cooperation, the Georgian-Hungarian high-level meeting also focused on Euro-Atlantic integration and the occupied territories.
PM Irakli Garibashvili met with the Turkmen Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations, Begench Gochmollayev, who is visiting Georgia. The prime minister’s office reported that the sides discussed political and economic cooperation between the two countries, with particular emphasis on trade potential and the energy sector. The sides also agreed to increase the tourist flow, the government’s press release reads.
Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) released an analysis saying that the parliament has become an even more closed and opaque institution for the representatives of critical media. The analysis also highlighted the intensified interference in journalistic activities due to the tightened accreditation regulations adopted in 2023, hindering access to information. In its analysis, TI Georgia also noted that “11 critical media representatives have had their accreditation suspended since the accreditation rule was enacted.”
On the weekend, journalists spotted a convoy of uniform black G-class Mercedes (Gelendvagen) cars with Russian registration plates in various locations across Georgia, sparking outrage in social media. Reportedly, the VIP guest, apparently arriving from Russia and making his way through Georgia, was accompanied by heavily armed guards, further fueling anti-Russian sentiments and concerns in the country. At least one vehicle bearing the same registration plates has been spotted in a video uploaded to the Instagram page of a Chechen businessman, Aslanbek Akhmetkhanov, who was publicly humiliated by the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov for organizing a birthday party during the Covid lockdown in Chechnya.
