Category: South Caucasus News
Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign
The intensifying confrontation between Iran, Israel and the United States is no longer confined to the Middle East. Its shockwaves are being felt across the South Caucasus, a region that has quietly assumed the role of a strategic buffer between competing power centres. Because for countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, the risks are no longer theoretical. They are rather structural, immediate and increasingly difficult to hedge.
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Армянские олимпийские игры
The international actors and diplomatic missions in Georgia have widely condemned the prison sentence against opposition politician Elene Khoshtaria as disproportionate and politically motivated, describing the case as part of the Georgian Dream party’s broader crackdown on dissent.
Elene Khoshtaria, leader of the Droa opposition party, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison after being found guilty of “property damage” for writing a protest message – “Russian Dream” – on Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze’s campaign banner in September. Tbilisi City Court Judge Giorgi Arevadze delivered the guilty verdict on March 24.
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), a major European political party composed of liberal and democratic parties, swiftly condemned the verdict as “wholly disproportionate,” calling for Khoshtaria’s “immediate release” and that “all politically motivated charges against her and fellow democratic opposition leaders and activists be dropped.”
ALDE’s chair in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Iulian Bulai, said separately that the “crime” for which Khoshtaria has been punished is “fighting for democracy in her country.”
MEP Rasa Juknevičienė of the European People’s Party (EPP) stated on the same day that “political prisoners have no place in an EU candidate country,” adding that the European Parliament “stands in full solidarity with the Georgian people and political prisoners, as reaffirmed in its resolution earlier this March.”
Ukrainian MP and ALDE’s Vice President Yevheniia Kravchuk said the launch of a criminal prosecution over an alleged minor damage to a banner was a “dangerous precedent,” arguing that the case is not about the “damage” but about “narrowing space for political expression and dissent.”
Giorgi Gogia, Deputy Director of Europe and Central Asia Division at the Human Rights Watch, said the jail sentence “over a protest message” was a “stark indicator of how far democratic standards have eroded in Georgia,” describing Khoshtaria’s case as “part of a broader crackdown on dissent in the country.”
Swedish Ambassador to Georgia Anna Lyberg, on March 25, said the verdict against Khoshtaria was “another example” of legal action against the opposition that “raises questions,” stressing that “rule of law, proportionality and freedom of expression are cornerstones of a free and democratic society.”
Norwegian Ambassador Bergljot Hovland said the sentence was “disproportionate and unjustified,” adding that it “reinforces a troubling pattern of imprisonment of opposition leaders in Georgia and erodes both freedom of expression and public trust in democratic institutions.”
The Estonian Embassy said it was “dismayed” by the verdict, quoting Roman statesman and lawyer Cicero, “Law applied to its extreme is the greatest injustice.”
The U.S. Helsinki Commission reacted on March 26, saying in a post on X that Georgian Dream “is using the courts as a weapon to silence anyone who challenges their hold on power.”
Georgian opposition politicians also condemned the ruling. Nika Gvaramia of Ahali, speaking on behalf of the opposition alliance of nine parties, said that Khoshtaria was punished for “loving her homeland” and “not giving up,” adding, “If anyone has to give up, it will be [Bidzina] Ivanishvili.” In a joint statement, 22 women politicians said, “For a mother of four [Elene Khoshtaria], a year-and-a-half prison sentence is more than just injustice. It is a clear reflection of the deep moral crisis of the illegitimate government.”
Meanwhile, Speaker of the disputed Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, lashed out at those condemning the sentence, saying Khoshtaria and “people like her” are “personal prisoners of the Helsinki Commission and similar [foreign groups].” In a March 27 comment to reporters in Parliament, Papuashvili said that such foreign actors “incite them to commit crimes to later stage discussions, resolutions, statements, and so on.”
Khoshtaria, along with seven other opposition leaders, also faces an even harsher sentence in a separate “sabotage” case, in which they are accused of “crimes against the state.”