MEP Rasa Juknevičienė condemns arrest of Georgian opposition leader, calls for sanctions against Ivanishvili

“GD regime’s brutality keeps escalating. Red lines were crossed long ago, but today goes too far. Zurab Japaridze, one of opposition party leaders, has been jailed. The EU and Member States must sanction Bidzina Ivanishvili and his cronies NOW,” MEP Rasa Juknevičienė posted on X on May 22, reacting to the arrest of the Georgian opposition leader.

Zurab Japaridze, leader of the More Freedom – Girchi party, was detained in court after a judge replaced his 20,000 GEL bail with pre-trial detention. He was charged with failing to comply with a parliamentary investigative commission. Japaridze had refused to pay the bail, calling the process politically motivated.

“There is no rational argument why I should be in jail,” he said in court, emphasizing that he posed no flight risk and had done nothing to justify imprisonment. “If everyone refused to take part in this lie, the regime would collapse.”

Japaridze also noted that he regularly attended trials of other political detainees and had traveled abroad without issue, dismissing the prosecution’s claim that he might flee or obstruct justice. “I do not recognize this commission created by the current parliament,” he added.