{"id":3167,"date":"2025-10-07T09:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/five-georgia-opposition-leaders-charged-with-coup-attempt-after-protests\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:45:10","slug":"five-georgia-opposition-leaders-charged-with-coup-attempt-after-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/five-georgia-opposition-leaders-charged-with-coup-attempt-after-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Georgia opposition leaders charged with \u2018coup\u2019 attempt after protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span>DEVELOPING STORY, <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>The arrests followed clashes on Saturday, as many opposition parties boycotted local elections.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Georgian prosecutors on Monday charged five opposition leadership figures with attempting to overthrow the government, after\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/10\/5\/georgia-pm-says-storming-of-presidential-palace-aimed-at-overthrowing-govt\">protests\u00a0on Saturday<\/a> culminated in clashes between police and demonstrators in the country\u2019s capital, Tbilisi.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s Ministry of Internal Affairs said 13 people had been arrested in connection with the unrest.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/10\/5\/georgia-pm-says-storming-of-presidential-palace-aimed-at-overthrowing-govt\">Georgia PM says protesters tried to overthrow government, vows crackdown<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/opinions\/2025\/10\/5\/moldovas-vote-is-one-more-sign-of-russias-weakness-in-its-near\">Moldova\u2019s vote is one more sign of Russia\u2019s weakness in its \u2018near abroad\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/10\/7\/venezuelas-maduro-says-us-embassy-false-flag-bombing-foiled-in-caracas\">Venezuela\u2019s Maduro says US embassy \u2018false flag\u2019 bombing foiled in Caracas<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Tens of thousands of antigovernment demonstrators rallied at Freedom Square in Tbilisi on Saturday, as the country of 3.7 million people voted in local elections. Some leaders promised a \u201cpeaceful revolution\u201d, even as the largest opposition blocs boycotted the elections.<\/p>\n<p>However, a smaller group of protesters attempted to enter the presidential palace minutes before polls closed. They were repelled by riot police using gas and water cannon.<\/p>\n<p>The charges against the five men carry a maximum prison sentence of nine years. Among those arrested was a world-renowned opera singer and activist, Paata Burchuladze, who read out at the rally a declaration claiming \u201cpower returns to the people\u201d and branding the government \u201cillegitimate\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4008549\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4008549\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025-10-04T184526Z_466137481_RC245HAWD5RG_RTRMADP_3_GEORGIA-POLITICS-PROTESTS-1759604002.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C501&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Protesters attempt to break into the presidential palace grounds during an opposition rally\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4008549\">Protesters attempt to break into the presidential palace grounds during an opposition rally on the day of local elections in Tbilisi, Georgia, October 4, 2025 [Irakli Gedenidze\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Internal Affairs Ministry said on Saturday it had opened an investigation into \u201ccalls to violently alter Georgia\u2019s constitutional order or overthrow state authority\u201d while Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze pledged more opposition arrests Sunday in what he termed an attempted \u201ccoup\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He told journalists that \u201cno one will go unpunished\u2026 Many more must expect sentences for the violence they carried out against the state and law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday evening, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside parliament, blocking traffic on Tbilisi\u2019s main avenue and pledging to keep protesting until the ruling Georgian Dream party leaves power.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia\u2019s State Security Service (SSS) said it had found a large cache of firearms, ammunition and explosives in a forest hideout near Tbilisi that was procured by a Georgian national on instructions from a Georgian man fighting with Ukrainian forces.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"choosing-sides-in-a-war\">Choosing sides in a war<\/h2>\n<p>Saturday\u2019s local polls were Georgian Dream\u2019s first electoral test since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/10\/27\/georgia-ruling-party-wins-election-says-poll-body-amid-opposition-protests\">a disputed parliamentary vote a year ago<\/a> plunged the Black Sea nation into turmoil and prompted a freeze on Georgia\u2019s accession bid to European Union candidacy. In October 2024, Georgian Dream won a comfortable victory in parliamentary elections that were accused of being fraudulent by the opposition.<\/p>\n<p>The central election commission said Georgian Dream had secured municipal council majorities in every municipality on Saturday\u2019s election and that its candidates scored landslide wins in mayoral races in all cities. These outcomes were largely expected, with most opposition parties boycotting the vote.<\/p>\n<p>The normally low-key local elections acquired high stakes after months of raids on independent media, restrictions on civil society and the jailing of dozens of opponents and activists. Rights groups say some 60 people \u2013 among them key opposition figures, journalists and activists \u2013 have been jailed over the past year. Georgian Dream has pledged to ban all major opposition parties.<\/p>\n<p>The country has been rocked by protests for more than a year, with supporters of the opposition accusing the ruling Georgian Dream party of authoritarianism and of seeking to drag the country, once among the Soviet Union\u2019s most pro-Western successor states, back towards Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Georgian Dream, however, says it is not pro-Russian and that it eventually wants to join the EU, while also keeping the peace with Moscow and preserving what it calls Georgia\u2019s traditional Orthodox Christian values.<\/p>\n<p>The party is widely seen as controlled by billionaire ex-prime minister\u00a0Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/12\/27\/us-slaps-sanctions-on-bidzina-ivanishvi-founder-of-georgias-ruling-party\">sanctioned by the US<\/a> for what it calls his promotion of Russian interests.<\/p>\n<p>Leonid Slutsky, chair of the Russian State Duma\u2019s Foreign Affairs Committee and a close ally of Vladimir Putin, has hailed Georgian Dream\u2019s victory as an \u201cinspiring triumph\u201d and accused the EU and Baltic states of \u201cmeddling in the country\u2019s internal affairs\u201d, according to Georgian media outlet Formula News.<\/p>\n<p>The news site also mentioned the EU Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas condemning the conditions under which Georgia\u2019s elections were held, saying they took place \u201cin an environment of large-scale suppression of dissent\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DEVELOPING STORY, The arrests followed clashes on Saturday, as many opposition parties boycotted local elections. Georgian prosecutors on Monday charged five opposition leadership figures with attempting to overthrow the government, after\u00a0protests\u00a0on Saturday culminated in clashes between police and demonstrators in the country\u2019s capital, Tbilisi. The country\u2019s Ministry of Internal Affairs said 13 people had been &#8230; <a title=\"Five Georgia opposition leaders charged with \u2018coup\u2019 attempt after protests\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/five-georgia-opposition-leaders-charged-with-coup-attempt-after-protests\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Five Georgia opposition leaders charged with \u2018coup\u2019 attempt after protests\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}