Giorgi Vashadze, one of the leaders of the Unity-UNM opposition coalition, has been sentenced to seven months in prison for his failure to testify before a parliamentary commission tasked with investigating members of the former-ruling United National Movement (UNM) government.

Vashadze is the fourth Georgian opposition leader to be jailed by the Tbilisi City Court in two days. The arrests come amid a wider crackdown on dissent by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party which appears to be seeking to entirely eliminate its political opponents.

Vashadze did not attend his trial on June 24, but gathered with friends, family and party members at the UNM-Unity headquarters to await news of his sentence. His sentence also bars him from holding public office for two years.

bne IntelliNews was present at the scene and witnessed a heavy police mobilisation leading Vashadze roughly from the building and forcing him into an unmarked police car.

As bne IntelliNews reported, on June 23 Zurab Japaridze of the Coalition for Change and Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze (no relation to Zurab) of the Strong Georgia bloc received similar length prison sentences, having also been found guilty of defying the incumbent Georgia Dream parliament’s investigative commission.

Several other opposition leaders charged with the same offence – Nika Melia and Nika Gvaramia of C4C and former UNM defence minister Irakli Okruashvili – are awaiting their verdict in pre-trial detention.

“All political prisoners in Georgia must be released,” stated UK MP James MacClearly in response to Vashadze’s prison sentence, adding that the UK “must sanction [the shadowy billionaire GD founder, Bidzina] Ivanishvili and his corrupt government now”.

In a joint statement published on June 24, a group of Georgian NGOs noted that the arrest of opposition leaders “directly indicates that the ruling regime in Georgia has finally chosen the path of authoritarianism”, as reported by Interpressnews.

GD’s parliamentary commission

The GD parliament launched an investigative commission in February to probe what ruling party MPs claim to be “systemic” and “monstrous” “crimes” and abuses committed by officials of the former-ruling United National Movement, both during their time in government from 2003-12 but also since.

GD critics argue the commission is essentially a tool of political persecution that the ruling party is using to outlaw their opponents one by one.

Shortly after the commission was launched, GD announced that its findings would form a basis of evidence upon which to have UNM and its so-called “successor parties” declared unconstitutional and banned.

Outlawing the so-called “collective UNM” was one of GD’s main campaign pillars in the run up to Georgia’s contentious October 2024 parliamentary election, which the opposition accuse the ruling party of rigging.

With the exception of the For Georgia leader, Giorgi Gakharia, all opposition figures summoned to the commission so far have refused to appear and have had criminal cases opened against them.

Citing reports of violations at the October 2024 parliamentary elections, all four of Georgia’s major opposition blocs have declared they do not consider the Georgian Dream parliament to be legitimate, and subsequently do not recognise the commission.

As per article 349 of the Georgian Criminal Code, “non-compliance with the request of the parliament’s Temporary Investigative Commission” is punishable by up to a year imprisonment as well as a ban on holding political office for up to three years.

All those opposition figures who failed to attend their commission hearings were initially granted bail as a preventive measure.

Japaridze, along with Gvaramia and Melia, refused to pay, and were sent to pre-trial detention to await their verdict.

Others - Khazaradze, Badri Japaridze and Vashadze - did pay, although this seems to have had no impact on the severity of sentence received.