Lithuania Revokes Visa-Free Travel for Georgian Diplomatic Passport Holders

According to the Delfi agency, the Lithuanian government adopted the relevant resolution on May 21, instructing its Ministry of Foreign Affairs to notify the European Commission and EU member states within five working days,

In January, the Council of the European Union decided that due to the Georgian government's infringement of human rights and democratic values, diplomatic and service passport holders would no longer benefit from visa-free travel to the EU.

On May 8, EU member state Estonia also revoked visa-free travel for Georgian diplomatic and service passport holders.

Shalva Papuashvili, the Chairman of the Georgian Dream Parliament, reacted to Lithuania's decision on his Facebook page. He stated that this decision is a serious violation of the 2010 international agreement Between the European Union and Georgia on the Facilitation of the Issuance of Visas.

"It's important that the European Union and its members respect their international legal obligations and the rules-based international order. We should also remember that this 2010 agreement granted visa-free travel only to the elite of Saakashvili's dictatorial regime, while ordinary citizens didn't have visa-free travel for another 7 years. Only in 2017, through the efforts of the Georgian Dream government, visa-free travel was opened for ordinary citizens as well," Papuashvili wrote.

EU member states have sanctioned Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili and his high-ranking officials for enacting laws targeting critical media, non-governmental organizations, freedom of assembly, and expression in Georgia, as well as for the brutal dispersal of protests and the torture of demonstrators.

Large and continuous protests followed Georgian Dream's decision to remove the issue of opening EU accession negotiations from the agenda until 2028.

Since the protests began, Georgian Dream amended Article 174¹ of the Administrative Offenses Code, increasing the fine for blocking roads tenfold, from GEL 500 to GEL 5,000.

The Georgian Dream government has also unlawfully imprisoned Mzia Amaghlobeli, the founder of Batumelebi and Netgazeti. She is being prosecuted under criminal law for slapping a police chief, which is typically an administrative offense. The charge against Mzia Amaghlobeli implies an assault on a police officer and carries a sentence of up to 7 years in prison. Ivanishvili's government currently holds around 50 demonstrators in custody, who are accused of various crimes.