Badri Japaridze Ordered to Pay GEL 50,000 Bail for Defying GD Parliament Probe
On April 5, Tbilisi City Court judge Eka Barbakadze ordered Badri Japaridze, a leader of the opposition Lelo party, to pay 50,000 GEL [about USD 18,200] in bail after he refused to appear before the Georgian Dream parliamentary investigative commission, which is investigating alleged crimes committed during the rule of the United National Movement (UNM). Judge Barbakadze granted Japaridze 50 days to pay the imposed bail.
Another Lelo leader, Mamuka Khazaradze, was ordered to pay the same amount in bail for also failing to comply with the commission’s summons. Under Georgian law, failure to comply with a parliamentary investigative commission is a criminal offense punishable by a fine or up to one year in prison.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party established the commission to investigate alleged systemic abuses committed during UNM’s time in power from 2003 to 2012. However, the GD-controlled parliament recently expanded the commission’s mandate to cover the entire period from 2003 to the present, a move which allegedly is aimed at targeting current opposition figures beyond the UNM era.
On April 2, the commission summoned other leaders of the opposition Coalition for Change — Nika Gvaramia, Nika Melia, and Zurab Japaridze — who already said they won’t comply. All three have rejected the validity of the current parliament, which they and other opposition figures have been boycotting since the contested October 26, 2024 elections.
The GD plans to send the final report of its investigative commission to the country’s Constitutional Court seeking to ban the UNM and what GD calls its “successor parties,” which include several of Georgia’s main pro-European opposition forces.
Also Read:
- 11/03/2025 – GD Amends Rules to Let Commission Investigating UNM Request Probe at Any Stage
- 14/02/2025 – Tea Tsulukiani to Chair Parliamentary Commission Investigating UNM Government
- 07/02/2025 – GD Parliament Staffs Commission to Investigate UNM, Threatens Criminal Liability for Refusal to Cooperate
- 09/01/2025 – GD Announces Creation of Parliamentary Commission to Investigate UNM’s Alleged “Systemic Crimes”
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