one of the opposition leaders beaten and arrested by the police

This violent arrest comes in the midst of a wave of protests against power, and after threats of repression from the Prime Minister.

Georgian police beat and arrested an opposition leader on Wednesday, December 4, during a raid on his party's offices. Leader of the Akhali party, which belongs to the Coalition for Change, Nika Gvaramia was brutalized then taken away by hooded police officers, according to images broadcast live by the independent television channel Pirveli.

This arrest comes as the police entered the premises of several opposition groups, local media report. These raids notably targeted the United National Movement, sworn enemy of the ruling Georgian Dream party, and several components of the Coalition for Change. According to journalists on site, the police are looking for several individuals accused of having participated in violence during the last nights of demonstrations and clashes.

A seventh consecutive night of mobilization is to take place on Wednesday evening in Georgia in the capital Tbilisi while the government is accused of abandoning the European ambitions of the Caucasian country to move closer to Moscow. The demonstrations broke out last Thursday after the Prime Minister announced the postponement until 2028 of the ambitions of this former Soviet republic to join the European Union. The rejection of the request to invalidate the results of the legislative elections on Tuesday, while the opposition denounced fraud for the benefit of those in power, did not cause the mobilization to be abandoned.