Opposition leader in Georgia amid human rights concerns
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
30.07.2013 11:08
Poland’s opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has begun a visit to Georgia where he is having talks with President Micheil Saakashvili, Prime Minister Bidhina Ivanishvili and former prime minister Wano Merabishvili, who is currently under arrest.
Jarosław Kaczyński (third right), with PiS MEPs Ryszard Czarnecki (right) and Tomasz Poręba (far left)) and PiS MP Małgorzata Gosiewska at begining of visit to Georgia: photo - PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Kaczynski, who leads Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s largest opposition party, said last week that there have been some developments in Georgia that evoke concern.
Following the defeat of Saakashvili’s party in parliamentary elections, some of its leaders have been detained and intimidated, Kaczynski said.
In June, Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski, said the EU was entering “a period of closer monitoring” of developments in Georgia, where, “the opposition is being threatened publicly with the use of prosecution services.”
Jaroslaw Kaczynski and President Saakashvili are to lay flowers at the monument in Tbilisi to Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland and Jaroslaw’s twin brother who was killed in an air crash in Western Russia in April 2010.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski is also to receive from the Georgian President that country’s highest state distinction – St George’s Order of Victory. (mk/pg)