Nika Melia, one of the leaders of the Akhali party and the Coalition for Change, was detained in Tbilisi on 29 May, on the eve of a trial that was to consider changing the preventive measure against him and taking him into custody.
Melia was detained while on his way to record a podcast. According to the “Akhali” press service, he is now in a temporary detention centre.
The Georgian Interior Ministry said the detention is administrative, the opposition activist is accused of violating Article 173 of the Administrative Code (insulting or otherwise humiliating behaviour towards a law enforcement officer in the line of duty).
Lawyer Giorgi Kondakhishvili called the detention “completely incomprehensible”: according to him, the police crew demanded to move the car and then used forceful methods of detention against Melia. According to Niki Gvaramia, an associate of the politician, Melia “was actually kidnapped.”
The detention was condemned in the “resistance platform” led by fifth president Salome Zurabishvili.
“Terror in Georgia is another illegal and shameful detention of a political leader (Niki Melia) after the kidnapping of the regime’s opponent in a third country (Giorgi Bachiashvili – ed.). Every day the “Russian” regime intensifies repression but fails to strengthen its power or internal confidence. The protest is alive and will continue!” wrote Zurabishvili on the X network.
American Congressman Joe Wilson, who deals with the situation in Georgia, also reacted to the new detention of an opposition activist. “The anti-American Georgian Dream regime has just arrested one of the key opposition leaders, Nika Melia, under the same far-fetched pretext as in previous attacks on the opposition. It is obvious that there is a complete eradication of the opposition in order to sell the country to China. Sanctions are the solution!” Wilson pointed out.
A court hearing on Melia’s failure to appear before a parliamentary committee was due to take place on 29 May, but has been postponed to 30 May. It is expected that the prosecutor’s office will demand detention due to non-payment of the bail set for refusal to appear at the session of the parliamentary commission created by the Georgian Dream. Melia stated that he did not intend to attend the session. Opposition members Zurab Japaridze and Irakli Okruashvili were previously detained under this article.