Georgian Opposition to Build "Cell City"

Fresh back from the Easter holidays, Georgian opposition members on April 21 began to assemble a collection of mock prison cells the length of Tbilisi's central Rustaveli Avenue. Similar cells will be erected in front of various government buildings beginning on April 23, protest organizers said.

Former presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze told EurasiaNet that both opposition leaders and rank-and-file supporters would stand in the cells day and night in their bid to force President Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation. "We'll all be doing it together," he said, adding that he intended to take part.

By late afternoon on April 21, supporters had blocked half of the city's Freedom Square, a key traffic thoroughfare, with half a dozen prison cells, each numbered and made out of metal frames or bars, rope and awning. Supplies for additional cells stood near parliament.

Gachechiladze attributed the plan to his brother, Giorgi Gachechiladze, a pop singer known as Utsnobi (The Stranger). Utsnobi hosts a popular virtual reality show in which he lives in a prison cell and criticizes President Saakashvili's government with various guests.