Police in Georgia arrested on February 23 the country's main opposition leader, Nika Melia, in a violent raid on his party's headquarters.

A court in Tbilisi last week had ordered Melia to be placed in pre-trial detention after he refused to pay an increased bail fee ahead of hearings in a case related to anti-government demonstrations in 2019.

He has been charged with "organising mass violence" during the protests. Melia rejects the case as politically motivated

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center John E. Herbst believes that Melia’s arrest “looks much more like political payback”.

As Herbst told the Accent, “over the past 18 years, Georgia has emerged as a raucous democracy that at times appears to tilt back in an authoritarian direction. That tilt has been more prominent at times in the past few years.”

“Last year Georgian Dream (GD) and the United National Movement (UNM) reached an important compromise on election reform for the parliamentary elections. While competent international observers called those elections flawed, but not irreparably so, UNM unfortunately chose not to accept their legitimacy. Today, the Georgian government chose to arrest UNM leader Nika Melia on charges dating back to the controversial events surrounding the riots that broke out when Russian parliamentarians addressed the Georgian parliament two years ago. While Georgian authorities claim that the arrest was a matter of simple justice, it looks much more like political payback. It is surprising that they took this step, particularly after Prime Minister Gakharia stepped down rather than preside over Melia’s arrest,” Herbst told the Accent.

According to him, the Georgian government should “release Melia immediately, and seek democratic means to manage its political competition with UNM.”

Hurst emphasizes the importance of the effective functioning of democratic culture and states that “all parties in Georgia (and elsewhere) need to do better on this”.

“The Georgian government’s arrest of United National Movement (UNM) leader Nika Melia is not a victory for the rule of law and democracy. It is a sad day for both in Georgia. It is unfortunate that UNM did not accept the legitimacy of those elections. Democratic culture is not an easy thing to accept and practice. All parties in Georgia (and elsewhere) need to do better on this. But the government has a special obligation not to abuse its police powers.” he said.

Herbst believes that Melia’s release would be “consistent with its objectives of joining the democratic NATO and EU clubs.”

“The Georgian government should release Melia immediately, and seek democratic means to manage its political competition with UNM. Georgia’s NATO and EU aspirations are worthy of support since it is a democratic state. But if it slides back into authoritarianism, the case for Georgia is much diminished,” he added.

/Marika Chubinidze