TBILISI, Georgia - The government of Georgia, a country in the South Caucasus region, has intensified its crackdown on opposition figures, jailing four key leaders within days. This move comes as part of a months-long campaign against dissent following a disputed election in October 2024 [1][2].

On Tuesday, Giorgi Vashadze, a 43-year-old politician from the Strategy Agmashenebeli party (also referred to as Strategy Builder), was sentenced to eight months in prison. The charge against him was refusing to testify in an official probe, which critics of the ruling Georgian Dream party describe as an act of political revenge [1][3].

Just a day earlier, three other opposition figures received similar sentences for non-cooperation with the same parliamentary inquiry. This investigation is looking into alleged wrongdoings during the tenure of former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who led Georgia from 2004 to 2012 [1][3].

The recent imprisonments have left nearly all of Georgia's pro-Western opposition leaders behind bars. This development has fueled ongoing protests in the capital city, Tbilisi, against the ruling Georgian Dream party [1][2].

Demonstrators, who gather daily in Tbilisi, are protesting two main issues:

The ruling party's decision in 2024 to halt Georgia's bid to join the European Union Claims that the October 26, 2024 election, which secured another term for Georgian Dream, was neither free nor fair [1][2]

The opposition coalition, of which Vashadze's party is a part, came third in last year's election [3]. In addition to the prison sentence, Vashadze and the other jailed opposition figures have been barred from holding public office for two years [3].

These events mark a significant escalation in political tensions within Georgia, a country strategically located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The government's actions have raised concerns about the state of democracy in this former Soviet republic, which has been pursuing a pro-Western path since gaining independence in 1991.