Parliament allows court to arrest oppositional MP Nika Meliya

Georgian MPs have satisfied the motion of the Georgian General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) to suspend the parliamentary immunity of Nika Meliya, an MP from the "United National Movement" (UNM) Party, accused under the case of organizing group violence at a protest action in Tbilisi.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 26, the GPO handed the indictment over to Nika Meliya's defence, as well as asked the parliament to temporarily strip off his immunity and give consent to his detention.

After the GPO's appeal, an extraordinary joint sitting was held of the parliamentary committees on procedural and legal matters. Amiran Guluashvili, the head of the procuracy supervision department of the GPO's Investigating Part, told the MPs that Nika Meliya was accused of committing a grave crime, which is punished with a long imprisonment.

She also said that in 2015-2019, Mr Meliya crossed the Georgia border for 24 times; he uses his diplomatic passport, and can escape from justice abroad.

As a result, it was decided to support the GPO's motion to deprive Meliya of his parliamentary immunity; at the sitting of the committees, 15 MPs voted for the suspension of his parliamentary immunity; four MPs voted against.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 27, 2019 at 01:28 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.