Watchdog

TBILISI -- Georgia's opposition parties have warned they will abandon a foreign-brokered deal on election reforms if "political prisoners" are not released.

The ruling and opposition parties on March 8 signed a memorandum of understanding in which they agreed, among other things, that parliament should consist of 120 members elected through a proportional voting system, while 30 members would be elected through a majority system.

The sides have since failed to move forward ahead of parliamentary elections set for October.

In a joint statement on May 13, the opposition parties urged the ruling Georgian Dream party to fulfill the agreement, which they said included the release of "political prisoners."

They also warned that "opposition factions will continue boycotting parliamentary sessions" if their demand is not met.

The opposition claims the release of several jailed politicians who they say have been convicted on politically motivated charges was a condition of the deal.

Georgian Dream representatives have denied that.

Earlier this week, the U.S. and European Union ambassadors called on the ruling and opposition parties to uphold and implement the deal, saying it was intended to "depolarize" Georgia’s political system and "create a better environment" for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The March 8 deal facilitated by U.S. and the EU officials also says that the party or candidate winning more than 50 percent of the vote in a constituency is awarded the contested parliamentary seat.

Under the accord, the electoral threshold for proportional elections will be set at 1 percent and a capping mechanism will mean that no single party receiving less than 40 percent of the votes cast will be allowed to hold a majority of seats in parliament.

Under the current electoral system, 73 of 150 parliamentary seats are claimed by candidates who finish first in district races. The remaining seats are distributed proportionally to the national share of the vote that a party wins.

This led to Georgian Dream, led by billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, winning 76 percent of the legislature's seats even though it won just less than half of the popular vote.

A Russian military court has rejected an appeal by Crimean Tatar blogger Nariman Memedeminov to overturn his conviction on charges of inciting extremism, leaving him to serve the rest of his sentence in prison.

The May 14 decision comes as Russia is accused of stepping up pressure on bloggers and independent media critical of the Kremlin's policies.

Rights groups and Western governments have also denounced what they call a campaign of oppression targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority and others who opposed Moscow's seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula in March 2014.

The majority of Crimean Tatars were against the Russian takeover of their historical homeland.

Memedeminov was arrested in Crimea in late March 2018 on charges his YouTube videos dating from 2013 to 2015 incited followers to commit acts of terrorism.

In his video blogs, Memedeminov discussed political developments, voiced opinions on Russian holidays, and called on Muslims to observe their religious norms. Most Crimean Tatars are Muslim.

In a ruling denounced by human rights and media-freedom watchdogs, a military court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in October 2019 sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison.

During the May 14 hearing at the Moscow region's military court of appeals, Memedeminov called on bloggers and journalists to continue to report on human rights abuses in Crimea.

"I ask that you continue to pay attention to the persecution on religious, national and professional grounds on the territory of Crimea. I hope soon to meet with you directly and not through the bars," he said.

Ahead of the court ruling, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called on the court to overturn Memedeminov’s conviction, saying: "Forcefully transporting a Ukrainian citizen and independent journalist from Crimea to Russia and trying him in a military court on absurd charges is a violation of international legal norms, and the Russian authorities know it."