Brussels, June 24 2025
In recent days, the political repression campaign orchestrated by the ruling Georgian Dream party intensified. Liberal opposition leaders have been sentenced to prison and barred from public office under politically motivated charges, additional summons have been issued with likely new charges in disregard of democratic principles and the rule of law.
● Girchi – More Freedom; Zurab Girchi Japaridze, received a seven-month prison sentence and a two-year ban from public office, also for non-compliance with the politically driven commission.
● Lelo for Georgia Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, were sentenced to eight months in prison and banned from holding public office for 2 years. Their conviction is rooted in their refusal to participate in the same illegitimate commission, a tool of political persecution.
● Strategy Agmashenebeli Giorgi Vashadze has been sentenced to seven months in prison for refusing to appear before a parliamentary commission established by the
ruling party to target opposition voices.
● Two other opposition leaders in the Coalition for Change Nika Gvaramia and Nika Melia, are currently in pre-trial detention for up to nine months, and both are under threat of imprisonment on similar charges, intended to silence dissent and intimidate the democratic opposition.
These coordinated judicial actions signal not only the criminalisation of political opposition but a deepening of Georgia’s slide toward a pro-Russian autocracy. They reflect a systematic capture of state institutions, designed to crush pluralism and undermine the public’s overwhelming desire for democratic governance, a pro-European future.
‘’We are witnessing how political opposition in Georgia is being imprisoned. We cannot stand by and watch Putin and his allies transform Georgia against the pro-EU population into his very own Georgian Dream.’’
- Ines Holzegger, President, European Liberal Youth-LYMEC
The European Liberal Youth LYMEC:
● Publicly condemn these politically motivated imprisonments
● Demand the immediate release of all political prisoners.
● Call for new, free, and fair parliamentary elections as the only peaceful and democratic way to resolve the deepening political crisis;
● Calls on the EU to take timely & decisive measures to prevent the consolidation of authoritarian rule in Georgia, before such actions become ineffective or irrelevant.
The window for peaceful democratic change in Georgia is rapidly closing. The time for meaningful international action is now.
LYMEC Statement on the Political Repression In Georgia