Georgia: Police detain top opposition leader – DW – 05/30/2025

Police in Georgia have detained Nika Melia, a leading opposition politician, his party said on Thursday.

He is accused of insulting law enforcement officers.

Melia is one of the key figures in the pro-European political alliance Coalition for Change, which is Georgia’s largest opposition group.

It’s the second such detention in recent days.

Last week, a Georgian court placed Zurab Japaridze, another leader of the Coalition for Change, in pre-trial detention for an indeterminate period of time.

Japaridze had refused to appear at a parliamentary inquiry into alleged crimes committed under the former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is now in jail.

Other opposition figures have also been accused of similar offenses. They have also refused to appear at hearings and have rejected the parliamentary inquiry as illegitimate.

What is the situation in Georgia?

Georgia was previously regarded as one of the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union’s successor states.

But the current ruling Georgian Dream party is accused by critics of mimicking authoritarian tactics employed by Moscow and steering the country towards Russia and away from Europe and its aspirations of joining the European Union.

The government denies the allegations.

Membership of the 27-nation bloc is a popular goal among Georgians and incorporated in the constitution.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, however, last year postponed accession talks with Brussels until 2028.

That decision revived street protests that had rocked the country in 2023 and 2024 after the government introduced the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence — referred to by critics as the “Russian Law” — that requires NGOs to register as foreign agents or “organizations carrying the interests of a foreign power.”

Georgia has had no formal ties with Russia since Moscow backed separatists in two breakaway provinces in 2008.

Edited by: Sean SInico