Court Sets GEL 1 Million Bail for Lelo Leaders in ‘Sabotage’ Case
Tbilisi City Court set bail at GEL 1 million (about USD 370,000) each for opposition Lelo party leaders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze in the so-called “sabotage” case and scheduled a December 25 pretrial hearing for other opposition leaders currently jailed in separate cases.
Judge Pikria Sikturashvili fully granted the prosecutors’ request, meaning Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze have 30 days to post bail. Other opposition leaders in the case will learn about their pretrial restraint measures on December 25 at 1 p.m.
The case concerns eight opposition leaders: ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, Strategy Aghmashebeli’s Giorgi Vashadze, Ahali’s Nika Gvaramia and Nika Melia, Girchi-More Freedom’s Zurab Japaridze, Droa’s Elene Khoshtaria, and Lelo for Georgia’s Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze. They are prosecuted over “crimes committed against the state.”
The allegations include “sabotage, aiding a foreign country in hostile activities, funding activities directed against the Georgian constitutional order and national security foundations, calling for violently changing the Georgian constitutional order or towards overthrowing the state government.”
The announcement came about a week after the ruling Georgian Dream party filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court, seeking to outlaw three major opposition forces.
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