The FINANCIAL — According to onlien magazine Civil Georgia, only four out of 44 persons, whom the opposition wants to be released, were arrested in connection to the November 7 unrests, Levan Bezhashvili, a lawmaker from the ruling party, said on February 11.
Release of, as the opposition describes, “political prisoners” is among 17 demands outlined in the joint memorandum and among those three demands which the nine-party opposition coalition said wanted to be immediately fulfilled by the authorities as a precondition for continuation of negotiations.
“After studying this list of 44 persons, we have found out that only four persons have been arrested in connection to the November 7 unrests; 11 persons out of 44 in the list turned out to be already released and 13 have been jailed for charges related with misuse of drugs and drug dealings… and six persons are in jail for charges related with the assassination attempt on ex-president, Eduard Shevardnadze, back in 1998,” MP Levan Bezhashvili said.
He also said that the list also includes Shalva Ramishvili, a journalist who was sentenced to four years in prison for blackmail in 2006. “So as we see the list includes only few persons related with the November 7 events,” MP Bezhashvili said.
Politicians from the nine-party opposition coalition, meanwhile, said that many activists were jailed after the November 7 under the pretext of drug misuse or drug dealing. They, however, also acknowledged that some persons in the list were jailed long before the November 7 events.
