Georgian police have arrested two opposition leaders during a street protest against the ruling party, which has been accused of democratic backsliding and of moving Tbilisi closer to Russia.
The Black Sea nation has been rocked by daily mass protests since the Georgian Dream party claimed victory in October parliamentary elections whose results the opposition rejected as falsified.
The prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s announcement on 28 November that his cabinet would not pursue the opening of EU membership talks with Brussels until 2028 further fuelled the demonstrations.
On Sunday police detained the leader of the liberal pro-European Ahali party, Nika Melia, and the former Tbilisi mayor Gigi Ugulava, a prominent opposition figure. Melia and Ugulava had spent years in prison under Georgian Dream’s rule on charges that rights groups have denounced as politically motivated.
The arrests were made as thousands of protesters attempted to block a highway entrance to the capital. Several other people were detained during the protest, with at least one appearing to have been injured.
Before the rally, the interior ministry issued a statement warning protesters that blocking the highway was a criminal offence punishable by up to four years in prison.
In the first wave of protests that began in late November, riot police used teargas and water cannon to disperse the crowds, arresting more than 400 demonstrators, according to the interior ministry.
Georgia’s top human rights official, the ombudsman Levan Ioseliani, and Amnesty International have accused police of torturing those arrested.
Georgian rights activists have denounced what they say is a mounting campaign of intimidation, beatings and arrests against those taking to the streets. Tbilisi’s security forces and judiciary have faced persistent accusations of repression against the ruling party’s opponents
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