Toughest challenge for Georgian leader

This week, the former defence minister, Irakli Okruashvili, set in motion a dramatic chain of events when he accused his former ally, Mikhail Saakashvili, of leading a corrupt government and asking him to kill several potential opponents.

He offered no evidence, and his allegations were rejected as false and absurd.

But the former defence minister was arrested on corruption charges two days afterwards, and several thousand people took to the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, in protest.

It was one of the largest demonstrations in Georgia since the Rose Revolution four years ago which brought President Saakashvili to power. Some of the speakers vowed to overthrow Mr Saakashvili, as he once overthrew his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze. Leading opposition parties have now united to form what they call the "Salvation Front". [More]

As Georgia reforms, judiciary under scrutiny

Since being arrested last year for plotting to overthrow the government, Maia Topuria and 11 other Georgian opposition members were tried in a closed courtroom for high treason. Accused of recruiting paid demonstrators to help stage a violent takeover of parliament, they were found guilty on Aug. 24.

Ms. Topuria, the niece of Igor Giorgadze – a Georgian living in Russia who is wanted on charges of attempting to assassinate then-president Eduard Shevardnadze in 1995 – and a leader of his party was sentenced to 8-1/2 years.

The case has played out against a backdrop of simmering tensions between a resurgent Russia and Georgia, with Topuria and her fellow defendants widely despised at home. But legal and human rights experts see the case, now under appeal, as a test of judicial reform in one of the most promising former Soviet states. [More]