Georgia jails third opposition leader as crackdown expands

FILE PHOTO: Leader of the Coalition for Change party Nika Gvaramia, who was arrested amid Georgian opposition protests against the government's decision to suspend the European Union accession talks, reacts inside an enclosure for defendants during a court hearing in Tbilisi, Georgia December 6, 2024. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File photo

TBILISI (Reuters) -Georgian opposition politician Nika Gvaramia was placed in pre-trial detention on Friday for up to nine months, the latest of several prominent government critics to be jailed.

Having weathered mass demonstrations over a disputed October election and a subsequent decision to halt talks on joining the European Union, Georgian authorities have moved to clamp down on leading figures of the protest movement.