While many opposition leaders and opposition media owners are now under prosecution and several in pre-trial detention, the amplification was preceded by public statement of Bidzina Ivanishvili, an oligarch and Chairman of the Georgian Dream party, in which he pre-announced future arrests of political leaders.
The crackdown also coincides with the wave of protests following Mr Ivanishvili, tanked the switch to the proportional election system to which he committed amid the violent crackdown on anti-occupation protests in June.
Up to 200 opposition activists have been arrested at various points with many subjected to excessive administrative fines for “hooliganism.”
Criminal case against Giga Bokeria, European Georgia Board Chairman, was reactivated after five years of complete silence. Gigi Ugulava, European Georgia Secretary General who already spent 3.5 years in what Georgian opposition views as political imprisonment, is again subject to prosecution with one of the old cases reactivated against him.
Mamuka Khazaradze, founder of Georgia’s largest TBC bank and leader of Lelo political movement is charged with an alleged offence dating back 11 years for which he can end up in prison while Nika Gvaramia CEO of Mtavari, an opposition TV is as well on trial together with the TV shareholder and businessman Giorgi Rurua who has already been arrested through, what opposition and lawyers say was planting of a firearm.
Mr Ugulava has also been physically assaulted by a Georgian Dream-linked judo champion, but it was Mr Ugulava who was charged. Georgian Dream maintains groups of wrestlers and former athletes who have been used for violent attacks on opposition leaders and activists at more than few occasions.
