Opposition leader Melia throws water at judge while recounting his ‘kidnapping’

A courtroom session in Georgia’s capital was abruptly halted on Friday after Nika Melia, co-chairman of the opposition Ahali party, threw water at the presiding judge while recounting his alleged kidnapping.

The incident unfolded at the Tbilisi City Court, where Melia was addressing the judge about what he described as his forcible abduction on the night of 29 May. Melia accused the court of indifference and complicity, culminating in the moment he hurled water toward the bench.

"People don't care if I was kidnapped or not; they look at me with glassy eyes. You are an accomplice, one of the links in the criminal chain," Melia said before being escorted from the courtroom. The judge promptly declared a recess.

Melia had been appearing in court over his failure to comply with a parliamentary investigation probing alleged crimes under the previous United National Movement government led by Vice Speaker Thea Tsulukiani, for which bail had been imposed as a preventive measure.

Earlier in the session, Melia offered a detailed account of his alleged abduction. 

"At around 9 p.m., we were driving near Lake Lisi, just two kilometres from the program site for 'Between Two Fires' on social media, when we were stopped by a man in a patrol uniform. He asked for the driver’s license but was clearly focused on something else," he told the court.

According to Melia, a radio transmission asked whether "the subject" was in the car, and moments later, he was forcefully removed from the vehicle and pushed into a nearby minibus.

"There were 11 people inside. None of them identified themselves as police. They took my phone, demanded the passcode, and made no attempt to explain or justify their actions," he said, insisting it was a kidnapping rather than a lawful arrest.

The judge asked only a few questions about the account and focused mainly on whether Melia intended to pay the bail. His lawyer, Nika Gvaramia, condemned the court’s handling of the situation, saying “how can someone who was kidnapped just hours earlier be expected to sit quietly in court?"

The deadline for paying the bail is set to expire within days. Both Melia and his legal team expect he may face arrest, noting that two other opposition politicians - Zura "Girchi" Japaridze and Irakli Okruashvili - have already been imprisoned for similar defiance of the parliamentary commission.