Georgia charges ex-PM, opposition leader Gakharia in deepening crackdown

TBILISI (Reuters) -Georgian prosecutors on Wednesday charged Giorgi Gakharia, an exiled opposition leader and former prime minister, with offences related to his time in office, amid an escalating crackdown against opponents of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Gakharia, who served as Georgian Dream's prime minister from 2019 to 2021, broke with the ruling party after his resignation and founded his own political party, which came fifth in last year's election.

In a briefing, Georgia's prosecutor general Giorgi Gvarakidze said Gakharia had been charged with exceeding his authority and causing injury to multiple people. The charges carry a maximum jail term of 13 years.

There was no immediate comment from Gakharia, who currently lives in Germany.

Gvarakidze said the charges related to a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters in June 2019 and also to the establishment of a checkpoint in September 2019 along the de facto border of the Russia-backed breakaway territory of South Ossetia, which prosecutors have said was illegal.

Gakharia was serving as interior minister at the time of both alleged offences.

Georgia's ruling party, which critics accuse of being authoritarian and pro-Russian, has moved to suppress dissent after more than a year of on-and-off protests.

Last week, prosecutors said they were charging a tranche of opposition leaders with charges including plotting to topple the government.

Georgian Dream, founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister widely seen as Georgia's de facto ruler, said last month it would ask the country's top court to ban the three largest opposition parties.

Gakharia's party, For Georgia, is the only opposition party to win seats in last year's election that Georgian Dream has not said it wants banned.

(Reporting by Felix LightEditing by Gareth Jones)