Detained Activist Says He’s Been Coerced to Incriminate Opposition Leaders, Declares Hunger Strike
Revaz Kikvadze, an activist detained on December 6 for his participation in pro-EU demonstrations, handed over a letter from the detention center stating that he is being forced to testify in court that he received money and orders from opposition politicians. He states that he is being detained illegally and that he won’t make such statements in court that are not true, declaring hunger strike instead.
“I am writing this letter from the detention center. I am being held illegally. They asked me to lie and to name the people who allegedly financed me and whose orders I carried out. They asked me to name [Zurab] Japaridze, [Elene] Khoshtaria, [Nika] Gvaramia and others. I would not name them because there was no such thing. I declare a hunger strike. We will win this struggle together,” reads his letter.
The politicians Kiknadze is supposed to blame are Elene Khoshtaria, leader of the Droa party; Zurab Japaridze, leader of the Girchi More Freedom party; and Nika Gvaramia, leader of the Ahali party. All of these parties are currently united in the Coalition for Change, an opposition alliance, one of the four opposition forces that passed the 5% threshold in the October 26 elections.
On December 4 Nika Gvaramia was arrested by police while it was raiding the Coalition for Change office. On December 6, Tbilisi City court judge Koba Chagunava sentenced Nika Gvaramia, one of the leaders of the opposition alliance Coalition for Change, to 12 days in prison on administrative charges of petty hooliganism (Article 166) and disobeying lawful police orders (Article 172).
The authorities have re-newed a repression campaign against opposition leaders and activists amidst the popular protests against the GD government U-turn on EU membership process.
The repressions against the opponents, “the collective United National Movement” that were to follow the GD victory, were announced by GD honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili during the pre-election campaign prior to the October 2024 elections.
He reiterated this promise, echoed by GD officials, on several occasions since, saying the GD needed the constitutional majority “to rid the country of this serious disease once and for all” and vowing to initiate the legal process after the elections to outlaw “all satellite and successor parties” of the UNM, which, in GD jargon, includes all opposition parties. He further promised to hold a “Nuremberg trial” for the opposition to deliver a “proper verdict to this bunch of politicians without a motherland, the network of foreign agents who are ready to sign any anti-state order.”
Also Read:
- 03/12/2024 – Watchdog Details “Inhuman and Degrading Treatment” Against Protesters by Police
- 03/12/2024 – Civil Society Foundation Calls for Immediate Stop to Police Violence
- 02/12/2024 – GYLA: Instead of Maintaining Law and Order, MIA Commits Crimes
- 01/12/2024 – CSOs: Physical Force Used Against Protesters Amounted to Torture
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