Tbilisi City Court ordered pretrial detention for ex-PM and secretary general UNM party Vano Merabishvili in connection to criminal charges brought against him in regards to breaking up of a protest rally on May 26, 2011 when he was the interior minister.

Even without this new court order, Merabishvili was already in pretrial detention in connection to multiple criminal charges over two separate cases, unrelated to the May 26 2011 events.

The prosecution claims that while serving as interior minister, Merabishvili ordered riot police to violently disperse anti-government protest rally, led by ex-parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze, after midnight on May 26 2011 with use of excessive force in order to “punish” protesters.

Merabishvili denies charges as part of political prosecution by PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, whom he described during the May 30 court hearing as “Russian oligarch, who wants to buy Georgia.”