The Tbilisi City Court placed Girchi-More Freedom party leader, Zurab Girchi Japaridze, in pretrial detention for refusing to pay the bail imposed for defying the Parliament’s temporary investigative committee’s summons.

Today’s hearing took place amid police mobilization inside and around Tbilisi City Court. Besides, 2 diplomats from the Czech and Swedish embassies, as well as one Amnesty International representative, attended the hearing. The hearing lasted more than 3 hours.

Judge Irakli Shvangiradze’s decision to place Japaridze in pretrial detention, satisfying the prosecutors’ request, stemmed from his decision not to pay the GEL 20,000 bail that was imposed by the court on April 16 for his refusal to appear before the temporary investigative commission.