Georgia arrests opposition leader for refusing to testify before parliament

Georgian opposition politician Givi Targamadze has been sentenced to seven months in prison after failing to appear before a temporary parliamentary investigative commission. 

The ruling was handed down by a Georgian court, Caliber.Az reports via Georgian media. 

Targamadze, a key political figure during the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili, did not attend the court session but later presented himself at a police station, where he was formally detained and placed in handcuffs.

Once a member of Georgia’s parliament and chair of the parliamentary Defence and Security Committee, Targamadze has long been associated with pro-reform and opposition movements in the country. His arrest comes amid a wider crackdown on political dissent, as several other opposition figures were also detained earlier this week under Article 349 of the Georgian Criminal Code. The statute criminalizes refusal to cooperate with parliamentary investigative commissions.

By Naila Huseynova