Tbilisi, April 8, 2021 (AFP)
A jailed top opposition leader in Georgia went on trial Thursday in a case that has deepened a protracted post-electoral political crisis in the Caucasus country.
The ex-Soviet country in Europe's southeast has been in the grip of a crisis since parliamentary polls in October, which the opposition denounced as rigged.
The crisis was further exacerbated in February when police arrested Nika Melia -- leader of the United National Movement, Georgia's main opposition force -- in a violent raid on his party headquarters and placed him in pre-trial detention.
Melia, 41, is accused of "organising mass violence" during anti-government protests in June 2019 that saw largely peaceful demonstrators briefly attempt to storm the gates of the parliament courtyard.
His trial opened Thursday at a courthouse in the capital Tbilisi in a hearing held behind closed doors due to pandemic measures, with opposition leaders and hundreds of his supporters gathered outside.
The hearing was brief, with a judge granting the defence team's demand to lift a ban on Melia attending his own trial and setting the next hearing for Tuesday.
Melia, who has rejected the charges as false and politically motivated, could face nine years behind bars.
His lawyer Giorgi Kondakhishvili told AFP ahead of the trial that he will demand his client's "release from illegal pre-trial detention".
Opposition parties have demanded snap elections and refused to enter the newly elected parliament, claiming the ruling Georgian Dream won a rigged election.
Georgia's prime minister resigned and thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Tbilisi in February in protest against Melia's arrest after he refused to pay an increased bail fee.
The next month, European Council President Charles Michel initiated negotiations between Georgia's government and the opposition to de-escalate spiralling tensions, but two rounds of tense EU-mediated talks have failed to produce a breakthrough.
Brussels and Washington have led a chorus of international condemnation of Melia's arrest, as fears mount in the West over Georgia's perceived backsliding on commitments to democracy.

Sumber : AFP