Immunity suspended MP Nika Melia released on GEL 30,000 bail
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, June 28
Nika Melia, a member of the opposition United National Movement party (UNM), charged by the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia (POG) with organising, leading and participating in group violence on June 20-21, 2019 in Tbilisi protests rallies, was released by Tbilisi City Court with GEL 30,000 bail on June 27.
The prosecution filed a motion requesting imprisonment and the defense lawyers requested – a GEL 10 000 bail in exchange for Melia’s release. However, the court decided to release him in exchange for GEL 30,000 bail.
After being released, the MP addressed 91 lawmakers, who supported the suspension of his immunity and agreed to impose detention to Nika Melia.
“How did the prosecutor manage to convince 91 lawmakers of me being guilty and could not persuade the court of it? It’s a political decision. They were afraid,” Nika Melia said.
The MP noted the whole process was orchestrated by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party founder and Chair, Bidzina Ivanishvili, often referred to as the informal ruler of the country. He noted that Ivanishvili could not dare to have him arrested and preferred to release him to avoid further tensions.
An investigation against Melia was launched under article 225 of Georgia’s Criminal Code, involving organization, participation and leading group activity accompanied by violence.
The POG said within the above investigation, the elements of an offence under the Criminal Code of Georgia were identified in the acts of Nika Melia.
The agency noted the Ministry of Internal Affairs actively conducts the identification procedures of the persons who on June 20-21 were expressly committing violent acts and were trying to break through the police cordon and attack the Parliament of Georgia, were throwing various object towards the law enforcement officers, were assaulting them physically and were destroying private property.
“Most of the persons are identified. In the coming days, relevant measures will be taken to prosecute them criminally for the acts,” the statement reads.
After the charges of the POG, 91 votes in favor, the Parliament of Georgia lifted immunity from MP Nika Melia on June 26. Only two GD lawmakers, Roman Kakulia and Mariam Jashi, abstained from voting for Melia’s arrest.
Kakulia said he needed to see more proof against Melia, adding it was his personal opinion and he respects the decision of his teammates.
“My opinion was that there should be a higher standard of representation of evidence in the parliamentary republic,” he said.
As for Jashi, she explained that there were two reasons why she did not support the removal of Melia’s MP immunity.
“The first reason is parliamentarianism and respect for the immunity of the Member of Parliament. The second is that I did not see enough arguments against Melia,” she added.
In the wake of large-scale protests in Tbilisi, 121 persons were remanded in custody for committing various offences during the demonstration. The part of the group has already been released from custody. At present, 45 persons remain in custody.
Besides, 300 were injured at the rally dispersal.
