The Parliament of Georgia is starting to consider the issue of early deprivation of parliamentary powers for the leader of the largest opposition party "The United National Movement" (UNM) and Tbilisi mayoral candidate Nika Melia.

The issue will be considered at a meeting of the parliamentary committee on procedural issues on Friday. Then it will be brought to the plenary session.

At the end of July, Melia resigned from his parliamentary mandate, after the ruling party "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia" announced the annulment of the agreement with the opposition, signed under the auspices of the President of the European Council Charles Michel.

The UNM says that the ruling Georgian Dream party deliberately accelerated the process ahead of the elections.

“No matter how [often] they say that they withdrew from the agreement, they did not withdraw but violated it. And it was because of the violation of this agreement that Nick Melia left parliament in protest. Now his issue is being considered quickly. They want to leave Nick Melia without immunity," UNM member Roman Gotsiridze told.

Meanwhile, the ruling party explains that the issue of deprivation of parliamentary powers is being considered in accordance with regulations.

“I would like to appeal to Mr. Gotsiridze with a request to read the relevant articles of the regulations while reading the statements of Nika Melia. This is his second statement. At one time we considered the applications for the termination of the powers of all oppositionists, and they were not satisfied. As for today's question, it is connected to a statement written by Melia a few days ago," said Guram Macharashvili, deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on procedural issues.

At the beginning of the year, the parliament of Georgia of the tenth convocation removed Melia’s parliamentary immunity. Then, on February 23, he was arrested on charges of organising and participating in mass violence.

To do this, the authorities had to carry out a special operation and force him to leave the party office. In early May, the Tbilisi City Court changed Melia's measure of restraint, releasing him from pre-trial detention on bail.

Melia was also stripped of his parliamentary immunity during the ninth parliament in December 2019, after the Tbilisi City Court found him guilty in the 2011 Cartu Bank bankruptcy case. The bank created by Bidzina Ivanishvili was the main source of financing for the opposition under Mikheil Saakashvili. In 2012, the united opposition led by Ivanishvili won the parliamentary elections and came to power.

Melia was found guilty of abuse of power and the court ordered him to pay a fine of 8 thousand dollars.