The Daily Beat: 8 April

The Georgian Dream party plans to prohibit political parties from receiving in-kind foreign support for holding lectures, seminars, and other public events. The changes to the country’s Law on Political Associations of Citizens will be fast-tracked in the one-party parliament and come into force immediately after the GD-elected president, Mikheil Kavelashvili, signs them.

The Georgian Dream party has also introduced amendments to the Law on Grants, requiring foreign donors to obtain prior approval from the GD-appointed executive to disburse grants. The donors must seek clearance from the Anti-Corruption Agency, which will have 10 days to respond. If the permission is denied, the “receiving a prohibited grant will result in a fine equal to twice the grant amount,” the draft reads.

Commenting on amendments to the Law on Grants, GD MP Levan Machavariani said the GD authorities wouldn’t allow foreign donors to provide grants for Nino Lomjaria of Georgia’s European Orbit, Eka Gigauri of TI-Georgia, and Baia Pataraia of Sapari. He further added that the “collective” Lomjarias belong to undesirable organizations, and such CSOs will no longer be eligible for grants.

In an apparently unintentional slip of the tongue, the same GD MP Machavariani, acknowledged the existence of political prisoners in Georgia. “Instead of paying tribute to our victims, some people will start making a fuss there, I mean party activists, not the parents of political prisoners,” Machavariani told journalists when asked if GD officials would attend the April 9 commemoration on Rustaveli Avenue.

GD Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili continues his visit to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where he is attending the 150th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and holding bilateral meetings with senior legislators from various countries. While in Tashkent, apart from Turkish, Israeli, and Belgian legislators, Papuashvili met with colleagues from India, Tajikistan, and the OSCE PA President.

The GD-led parliamentary commission probing alleged crimes committed by the previous UNM government has decided to refer the cases of Nika Gvaramia and Zurab Japaridze, leaders of the Coalition for Change, as well as former UNM MP Givi Targamadze, to the Prosecutor’s Office over their failure to appear before the commission.

Tbilisi City Court has imposed a GEL 20,000 (approximately USD 7,130) bail on Irakli Okruashvili, a former defense minister under the previous United National Movement (UNM) government, for failing to appear before a parliamentary investigative commission established by the ruling GD party. Okruashvili is ordered to pay the bail in 30 days. He is also barred from leaving the country until the legal proceedings are concluded.

TV Pirveli’s cameraman, Lasha Jioshvili, has been charged with an administrative offense by the Ministry of Internal Affairs over a Facebook post. According to a police officer in the video, Jioshvili allegedly verbally insulted law enforcement in a video he shared on April 6 and disrespected the ministry through the accompanying caption. For more updates on the Georgian resistance, visit our live blog.

UK Minister of State Stephen Doughty criticized the Georgian government for democratic backsliding while congratulating the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) on receiving the Democracy Defender Award. Today, on April 8, representatives of eight member states of the OSCE Permanent Council presented the Democracy Defender Award to GYLA.