Police block the building of former defence minister Irakli Okruashvili's United Gerogia party in Tbilisi, September 27, 2007. Nearly two dozen camouflaged police broke into the Tbilisi headquarters of Okruashvili's newly formed opposition party, took him away and searched the premises.
Photo: Reuters
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Arrest of Okruashvili Condemned
Eka Beselia, lawyer and advisor to Irakly Okruashvili, former defense minister and leader of the United Georgia Party, called Okruashvili's arrest “fascist political punishment” for his statements to the press about Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Several policemen remain at the headquarters of the United Georgia Party, where Okruashvili was arrested. That party was only recently founded by Okruashvili, who was its leader.
At the initial meeting of the United Georgia Party, Okruashvili accused Saakashvili of “daily repressions, destruction of homes and churches… murders and intimidation” and a “show” fight against corruption that affects only the opposition. He also accused the president of being indecisive about South Ossetia and missing the chance to reunite the breakaway republic with Georgia.
The most serious of Okruashvili's accusations was that Saakashvili ordered him to kill Georgia's largest private investor Badri Patarkatsishvili by planting a bomb in his car. Patarkatsishavili is an associate of exiled Russian businessman, whom Georgia refused to extradite to Russia in 2001.
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