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MOSCOW-The Parliament in the republic of Georgia today approved a decree by President Mikheil Saakashvili to keep the nation under a state of emergency for as long as 15 days, resisting calls from inside and outside the country to restore personal and political rights.The decree was approved by a vote of 149 to 0 in a session of the 235-seat Parliament that was boycotted by the opposition. Its approval was a rebuff to international organizations and foreign governments, including the United States, that had urged the government to end emergency rule.The legislators met as prosecutors announced that they had opened a criminal investigation against Badri Patarkatsishvili, a wealthy Georgian who had pledged financial support to the opposition, on the grounds that he had plotted to overthrow the state.Mr. Patarkatsishvili, who has been traveling in Israel this week, was on an airplane today and not immediately available for comment, a member of his staff said.Mr. Saakashvili issued the emergency order Wednesday night after a police crackdown on an opposition demonstration in Tbilisi, the country’s capital, led to demonstrations and clashes with police officers.The decree banned public assembly, limited political speech and closed independent news television stations. The police officers seized the offices of the country’s most popular station, the opposition Imedi-TV, which remained off the air today.A senior member of government said by telephone that the station was under criminal investigation, accused of collaborating with Mr. Patarkatsishvili and actively inciting unrest, and had little prospect of reopening soon, even after the state of emergency ends.Under Georgian law, the order required parliamentary approval within 48 hours. The parliamentary vote today, with only a few hours remaining, effectively extended the state of emergency until Nov. 22, giving Mr. Saakashvili the option of exercising the full 15-day period allowed by the country’s laws.The speaker of Parliament, Nino Burdjanadze, said the order could not yet be lifted because there had been a coup attempt and the state remained at risk. “The threat that existed until now is still present despite the calm that has been restored,” she said, according to wire reporters present at the session.Mr. Saakashvili and other government officials had said earlier that the state of emergency could be ended before the full term, and Giga Bokeria, a member of Parliament and one of the president’s close allies, said the government would in the days ahead almost certainly consider lifting the emergency.“We are sure that it will be lifted sooner,” he said by telephone after the vote.On Thursday, Mr. Saakashvili called for a special presidential election on Jan. 5, saying he would test whether he retained a mandate, and for a referendum on the same day to determine the timing of parliamentary elections, which the opposition had demanded for next spring.The surprise announcement marked an effort to alleviate the domestic unrest and international concern after the police action in Tbilisi, the country’s capital, and the suspension of civil liberties. More than 500 people were injured in the crackdown and clashes, none of them fatally, the government said. In the aftermath, public assembly was banned by Mr. Saakashvili’s emergency order and two opposition television stations were forced off the air.Imedi-TV was occupied by special forces officers. The government accused it of inciting unrest after it broadcast a statement from Mr. Patarkatsishvili, calling for the end of Mr. Saakashvili’s government.Appearing on national television at 7 p.m. on Thursday, three hours after calling the American ambassador in Tbilisi and notifying him of his plans for snap elections, Mr. Saakashvili both defended the police action and expressed a degree of regret.He said he had been forced to act against a plot organized by Russia to destabilize Georgia and threaten its independence and its experiment in democracy, and insisted that he was protecting the country and not his own power.
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