Tuesday, 24 March 2009/RL) -- The Georgian Interior Ministry has announced that police have arrested and charged two people for antistate activities.
"Today we will present evidence regarding two people, Malkhaz Gvelukashvili and Lasha Chkhenkeli," Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. "In the evidence, you will see the names of concrete people, the concrete plans, and the concrete groups, and also some indication of the sources of funding. We are at the very early stages of the investigation so we cannot yet make any conclusions."
Opposition leader Nino Burjanadze at a March 23 press conference in Tbilisi. She has accused the government of a "campaign of terror." The announcement of the arrests came one day after the Interior Ministry said it had detained 10 people on charges of illegal arms purchases. The ministry released video recordings that appear to show the suspects purchasing, or attempting to purchase, automatic weapons.
All but two of the detainees had ties to one of the government's strongest opposition critics, former parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze. Burjanadze dismissed the charges as part of a "campaign of terror" against her party.
Utiashvili said the latest case is not related, but the suspects' purported aims -- and the evidence presented against them -- are strikingly similar.
Storming The Parliament?
The ministry once again presented audio and video evidence they say shows the suspects discussing arms purchases and plans to take control of the Tbilisi TV tower during critical opposition protests next month.
When our people enter, we'll have not just 30 people, it'll be 500, or even a thousand. All our people. They'll take the outer perimeter; they'll control it completely. Military guys -- ours. You understand? And they won't let anyone move a finger.
The recording appears to suggest that members of the Georgian military are involved in the plot, and that Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, could be a target.
"When our people enter, we'll have not just 30 people, it'll be 500, or even a thousand. All our people," Gvelukashvili allegedly says. "They'll take the outer perimeter; they'll control it completely. Military guys -- ours. You understand? And they won't let anyone move a finger."
An unidentified man says, "Very good. And what if Misha [Saakashvili] is there?"
"He won't escape alive," Gvelukashvili allegedly says. "This is not about Misha. This is a popular uprising."
The ministry later announced Gvelukashvili and Chkhenkeli have been charged with anti-state activities, a serious charge that could carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
This week's arrests further stoke the political tensions mounting ahead of scheduled opposition protests on April 9, the day marking the 20th anniversary of Soviet forces crushing a pro-independence demonstration in Tbilisi on April 9, 1989.
Opposition groups are planning to use the occasion to stage antigovernment protests demanding Saakashvili's resignation.
Uneasy Quiet
The opposition outcry that rose following Monday's arrest announcements have given way to an uneasy quiet.
Burjanadze repeated her claim on March 24 that the government was producing false video evidence to undermine its political opponents.
But other voices -- including Irakli Alasania, the former UN ambassador and highly popular leader of the Alliance For Georgia -- have been notably silent.
Manana Nachkebia, a member of the New Rightists party that is a member of the Alliance for Georgia, told RFE/RL's Georgian Service that the wave of videotaped allegations are no different than videos -- broadcast on state TV at the time of antigovernment protests in November 2007 -- that attempted to show opposition members colluding with Russia.
"Eighty percent of the Georgian population predicted that we would see exactly this development. Everyone was expecting that the closer we got to April 9, the more concrete actions we would see from the government," Nachkebia says. "And one of these concrete actions has been this PR campaign. We have experience with this already."
Giorgi Gabashvili, one of the parliamentary majority leaders from Saakashvili's United National Movement, told deputies on March 24 that the round of arrests and charges are in no way "political."
Minority leader Giorgi Targamadze said the burden is on government officials to prove the veracity of the video and audio recordings.
RFE/RL's Georgian Service contributed to this report. |
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
RFERL
|
|
