Another fifty people were detained during the night dispersal of protests in Tbilisi
Kyiv • UNN
The Georgian Interior Ministry detained 48 people during the dispersal of a protest rally in Tbilisi, including a journalist and a politician. The Ombudsman stated that there are no legal grounds for interfering in a peaceful rally.
The Georgian Interior Ministry announced the administrative detention of 48 people during the dispersal of a protest rally in Tbilisi on Saturday night, reports UNN with reference to "News. Georgia".
Details
The detainees are charged with disobedience to police demands and disorderly conduct (articles 166 and 173 of the code of administrative offences).
According to media reports, Mtavari journalist Beka Korcia is among those detained. The lawyer said that the special forces "grabbed" him when he was walking along Javakhishvili Street towards the Galaktioni Bridge after the dispersal on Rustaveli.
Tsotne Koberidze, a member of the Coalition for change, was also arrested. The politician said that he was soon released – Koberidze formally remains a member of the Georgian parliament, his application for refusal of his mandate has not yet been granted.
Koberidze says that during the arrest, the security forces beat him and made humiliating comments. "They took a photo with me and laughed: "we are rooting for you. Well, when Will you save the country?". Then they took me to Chichinadze Street, put me in the middle and beat me there, beat me for about a minute. Then the police treated me well," Koberidze wrote on his Facebook page.
It is known about the detention of former Deputy Economy Minister of Georgia Zurab Alavidze and his son.
The media spread footage of a middle-aged woman who tearfully spoke about the detention of her 19-year-old son with severe epilepsy. She said that she warned the security forces about the young man's illness and asked not to detain him, but she was ignored. Soon, the people's defender of Georgia said that the young man was released after the intervention of his staff.
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The interior ministry says that the police were forced to start dispersing the rally due to the aggressive actions of individual protesters. They allegedly fired fireworks at police and parliament, threw stones at employees and insulted them.
The Georgian Ombudsman, in turn, believes that at the time of the beginning of the crackdown, the action was peaceful and "there were no legal grounds for interfering with freedom of Assembly.
