Georgia Arrests Opposition Leader
A senior leader of Georgia's opposition party and close ally of former president Mikheil Saakashvili was arrested on money laundering charges Thursday, in what his supporters denounced as a political witch-hunt.
Gigi Ugulava, one of the leaders of the United National Movement (UNM), was detained at the airport in the capital Tbilisi as he was flying out of the country.
It followed an investigation by the finance ministry that claims he used "black money" to finance UNM's campaign in the run-up to last month's municipal elections, the ministry said in a statement.
Ugulava, a former mayor of Tbilisi, was UNM's campaign chief during the municipal elections.
The June 15 polls went into a second round runoff which will be held later this month between the UNM and the ruling Georgian Dream coalition.
UNM said in a statement that Ugulava's arrest was politically motivated to disrupt its election campaign.
The arrest "marks a deepening of the government's agenda of political retribution and persecution of the opposition," the party said in a statement.
Polish MEP and Vice President of the European People's Party (EPP), Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, condemned the arrest as "politically motivated".
"I call upon the Georgian government to halt all such politically motivated actions, which can seriously undermine Georgia’s European future," he said in a statement.
Before his arrest, Ugulava told journalists he planned to go to Kiev and would return to Georgia on the same day.
On Wednesday, a court in Tbilisi turned down a request by prosecutors to seize Ugulava's passport and prevent him from travelling abroad.
A staunch U.S. ally and flamboyant reformer, Saakashvili ruled Georgia for a decade and established the UNM party.
However the party was defeated in parliamentary and presidential elections in 2012 and 2013 by the Georgian Dream coalition.
Since then, a slew of Saakashvili's top allies have been investigated and some jailed, prompting Western concerns over politically motivated trials.
Saakashvili is currently in self-imposed exile in the U.S., and has refused requests to return for questioning related to the trials.
Source: Agence France Presse
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