May 7 (Reuters) – Georgia sentenced ten people, including ⁠a ⁠prominent opera singer, to lengthy ⁠prison sentences on Thursday after finding them guilty of attempting to overthrow ​the government and organising violence at large rallies during municipal elections last year,  in a case critics say ‌underscores a widening crackdown on opponents ‌of the ruling party.

Georgian riot police used pepper spray and water cannons to disperse demonstrators on ⁠the night ⁠of the October 4 vote, which was boycotted by the two largest opposition ​blocs as part of a standoff with the ruling Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012.

Opposition figures had called for a “peaceful revolution” against Georgian Dream, which they accuse of being pro-Russian and authoritarian. Shortly before polls ​closed last year, a group of demonstrators attempted to force entry to the presidential palace in ⁠the ⁠capital Tbilisi.

Five activists were arrested ⁠that night and ​ten were ultimately charged, including opera singer and activist Paata Burchuladze and several opposition politicians.

Georgians ​have been protesting nightly since ⁠November 2024, when the government announced it was freezing accession talks to the European Union, abruptly halting a longstanding national goal.

Government opponents say Georgian Dream is dragging Tbilisi away from its traditional Western path and back towards Russia’s orbit, a trend which began in earnest after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in ⁠2022.

‘CLEAR PATTERN OF PUNISHMENT’

In a statement on Thursday, the Georgian prosecutor’s office said the ⁠ten people had been found guilty of a slew of crimes, including organising group violence and “publicly calling for the violent change of the constitutional order of Georgia and the overthrow of the state government”.

Eka Gigauri, director of Transparency International Georgia, a watchdog group, said in a statement that the sentencings “illustrate a clear pattern of punishment aimed at silencing those who oppose the ruling party’s pro-Russian policies and who peacefully defend Georgia’s democratic future in the face of increasing authoritarianism.”

Prosecutors said the people had “decided to organise group violent actions” and ⁠had damaged government property, set fires and illegally erected barricades during the protests.

Burchuladze, the opera singer, and four others were given seven years in prison. Four more people were given five years in prison, and another received two years in absentia.

Georgian media quoted Burchuladze ​and two others as rejecting the charges as absurd and saying they regretted ​nothing.

(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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