Georgian court sentences Badri Bitsadze to jail in absentia

The Tbilisi City Court on Friday sentenced in absentia the Georgian opposition leader's husband to five years and six months in prison for attacking police during a protest in May, RIA Novosti reports.

Badri Bitsadze, the former chief of Georgia's border police and the husband of Georgia's key opposition politician Nino Burdzhanadze, was found guilty of orchestrating attacks on police during an opposition protest. The five-day rally against President Mikheil Saakashvili was broken up in the early hours of May 26.

Bitsadze is charged with part two of Article 353 of the Georgian Criminal Code on, "confrontation, threat, or violence against the
defenders of public order or other authorities by a group". The case concerns illegal actions on protest actions of the "People's
Assembly", held in Tbilisi during the five days prior to dispersion on the night of May 26.