Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze said on January 7 that the sate of emergency renewed in the Autonomous Republic.
The state of emergency, which was declared in Adjara during the November velvet revolution, was temporarily canceled on January 3 to hold the January 4 presidential elections in the region.
The renewal of the state of emergency was followed by the crackdown of the Adjarian law enforcement agencies on the opposition Kmara movement.
Several members of this movement together with their family members were arrested on January 6; later Kmara activists were released however, their family members remain under detention.
The Adjarian Interior Ministry rules out political repressions against the opponents and claims that the police found drugs and explosives in the apartments of Kmara activists.
The civil rights activists have already expressed protests regarding the incident. Georgian State Minister Zurab Zhvania also said that illegal detentions of “human rights activists and people with different positions are inadmissible in new Georgia.”