Georgia opens 'coup plot' trial

By Matthew Collin
BBC News, Tbilisi

Pro-Western leader Saakashvili took power in a revolt in 2003

Twelve members of opposition groups have gone on trial in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, accused of treason and planning a coup.

Georgian TV says the trial was adjourned for a week after one of the defendants failed to turn up.

They are all supporters of the fugitive former Georgian state security chief, Igor Giorgadze.

They were arrested last September in the run-up to local elections. They say the charges are politically motivated.

The people on trial were detained in dramatic early morning raids right across Georgia.

The authorities said they seized weapons and that those arrested were plotting to overthrow the government.

They are members of small groups opposed to the pro-Western policies of the Georgian President, Mikhail Saakashvilli. They want him to be replaced by Mr Giorgadze, who is currently on the run.

Mr Giorgadze was accused of attempting to assassinate the former President, Eduard Shevardnadze, in the 1990s.

Lawrence Barcella, a lawyer for one of those on trial, said he thought this was not a coincidence.

"Not only our client, but among the other eleven you have a number of the opposition political parties represented," he said.

"It certainly was a chilling effect on those political parties, to have many of their leaders all swooped up and arrested just weeks before an election."

Mr Barcella said he believed evidence had been falsified and that the weapons seized during the raids had been planted by the Georgian authorities.

Questions have been raised about whether those on trial would actually have been capable of organising a coup. The opposition groups to which they belong do not have widespread support in Georgia.

They are alleged to have links to Russia - which many people in Georgia believe is trying to undermine the country and destabilise its pro-Western government.