UNM leader and campaign manager Gigi Ugulava was arrested in Tbilisi airpot this morning before travelling to Kiev for a few hours.

Police detained Mr Ugulava citing "urgent need" to interrogate him even though a travel ban sought by prosecution was explicitly rejected by court yesterday morning.

Mr Ugulava appeared in airport accompanied by media and had published his travel tickets in advance demonstrating intent to return to Georgia on evening of July 3rd.

UNM believes arrest of Mr Ugulava ahead of several crucial runnoffs of June 15 local elections, especially in Tbilisi is aimed at incapacitation of Georgia's main opposition party and marks deepening of the Government's agenda of political retribution and persecution of the opposition.

In his capacity of campaign manager, Mr Ugulava was crucial in achieving runoffs in the capital where the Government insisted on outright victory.

UNM also believes Mr. Ugulava's arrest is a personal decision of Oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili who remains main decision maker of the Georgian Government despite not holding any formal office.