Four persons detained at rally in front of the "Georgian Dream" office set free

The court has ruled to release Nika Parulava, Beka Papashvili and Oto Shengeliya, activists of the "Smeni" movement by postponing the consideration of their cases. The proceeding of the case of Tite Gedenidze, an activist, has been stopped.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 21, four persons were detained during a rally in front of the office of the "Georgian Dream" Party, where Bidzina Ivanishvili had a meeting with Ambassadors of EU countries.

Activists of the "Smeni" (from the word meaning "change") movement called on diplomats to put pressure on Ivanishvili to hold early elections under the proportional system after on November 14, the draft constitutional amendment to switchover to the new electoral system failed to win the required number of Georgian MPs' votes.

On November 22, the "Smeni" activists, Nika Parulava, Beka Papashvili and Oto Shengeliya, were released by the court ruling, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, who watched the broadcast of the "Mtavari Arkhi" TV Channel, reports. The court will make its final decision on sanctions to the activists on November 25.

Tite Gedenidze, another activist, was released from custody without any sanctions. Judge Natiya Merabishvili has found that there were no grounds for accusing Gedenidze of disobeying the police and petty hooliganism, and suspended the proceedings of his case.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 23, 2019 at 08:00 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.