The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia (POG) announced on February 25 that it would appeal to the Tbilisi City Court to substitute Melia’s custody into bail if he pays it.

Prosecutor Amiran Guluashvili vowed that Melia’s arrest never was POG’s goal in itself.

“Accordingly, if Melia meets conditions of a bail as of November 3, 2020, the prosecution is ready to appeal to the Tbilisi City Court to change the restrain measure into the bail,” Guluashvili said.

Earlier in February, Tbilisi City Court ruled imprisonment for the opposition United National Movement (UNM) Chair, Nika Melia.

Melia was charged with incitement to violence during the June protests in the Georgian capital Tbilisi in 2019 and was released on GEL 30,000 bail. UNM Chairman defied the bail conditions by removing his monitoring bracelet. The court increased the bail amount to GEL 40,000 in November 2020 following the violation. Melia did not pay the added bail either.

The General Prosecutor’s Office (POG) warned Melia of a motion to substitute the bail with custody. POG appealed to the Georgian parliament to suspend his parliamentary immunity to request his arrest from the court.

The riot police detained Melia at the party’s headquarters on Tuesday morning.