Hundreds of arrests and mysterious beatings as Georgia cracks down on pro-EU protests Reuters

By Felik Light

TBILISI (Reuters) – The teenage son of 75-year-old Marina Terishvili Mamuka was killed at a nationalist rally in Georgia in 1992. Now her other son, Giorgi, has been arrested for his role in protests against alleged Russian influence in their homeland.

Seven police cars pulled up to her home in the capital Tbilisi on Friday and took away Giorgi, a 52-year-old taxi driver, she said.

He was remanded in custody for two months for “participating in gang violence,” according to rights groups and local media, and faces up to six years in prison if convicted, part of a wider crackdown on protesters who have been clashed with the police for almost two weeks.

The rights group Young Lawyers Association of Georgia said he had not yet entered a plea, and Marina Terishvili said she did not know why he was taken into custody.

“I cannot deny that he went to the rallies, because he has a brother who died on February 2, 1992, and he went there to honor his soul,” Marina said, adding that Giorgi could not tolerate the idea that his younger brother was died suddenly.

Mamuka was 17 when he was killed during the brief civil war that followed Georgia’s exit from the Soviet Union in 1991, ending 200 years of Russian rule.

Giorgi is among more than 400 people who authorities and rights groups say have been arrested during protests against government moves to delay the South Caucasus country’s long-standing bid to join the European Union.

About 30 face criminal charges, mostly related to allegations of “group violence” aimed at overthrowing the government. Among the prisoners are two leaders of the pro-European opposition in the country.

Human rights groups say the crackdown is without recent precedent in Georgia, a country that was considered one of the most pro-Western and democratic successor states to the Soviet Union.

FIREWORKS

Some protesters threw fireworks and other projectiles at the police, claiming they were defending themselves against attacks with tear gas and batons. The Ministry of the Interior announced on Monday that more than 150 police officers were injured.

The Georgian Dream party, which officials say won an October election that the opposition says was tainted by fraud, sparked widespread anger in the country of 3.7 million when it announced last month it was suspending EU accession talks until 2028. . year.

Georgian Dream says it favors a pragmatic policy with Russia, which supports the two regions that broke away from Georgia after it left the Soviet Union. The party says its goal is to preserve peace amid the war in Ukraine, which Russian invasion forces have been wracking since early 2022.

Western countries condemned the crackdown, and the EU’s ambassador to Georgia said on Monday it deserved sanctions.

Georgia’s ombudsman Levan Joseliani, a former opposition politician appointed by Georgian Dream, said on Tuesday that his office had visited 327 detainees, of whom 225 said they had been mistreated and 157 had visible injuries.

Police reported finding fireworks and items for making petrol bombs at the headquarters of two opposition parties. Both sides said the cases were planted.

At a briefing on Monday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze called the party’s premises a “hotbed of violence” and said their attempt to seize power had failed.

MASKED IN BLACK ATTACK

Gangs of masked people in black have started attacking opposition politicians, activists and some journalists in recent days.

Opposition supporters call the gangs “titushki”, the Ukrainian word for thugs who attacked opponents of the pro-Russian government before the country’s 2014 Maidan revolution that forced the president to flee to Moscow.

Two journalists from a pro-opposition television channel suffered visible head injuries in an attack on December 7, filmed during their live broadcast from the protest.

On the same day, Koba Khabazi, a prominent member of the opposition Coalition for Change party, suffered severe head injuries after being attacked inside the building where his party’s headquarters are located.

CCTV footage obtained by Reuters shows around 15 men dressed in black enter the building and confront Khabazi, who is pushed down a staircase, before being punched and kicked in the head as he lies motionless on the ground.

Speaking to Reuters two days later, Khabazi, a 57-year-old former lawmaker, blamed the Georgian government for the attack.

“Of course the government is behind this,” Khabazi said, his head still wrapped in bandages. “This government is built on violence.”

Georgian authorities said they were not involved in the attacks and condemned them. Officials of the ruling party have suggested that they are being implemented by the opposition in order to frame the Georgian Dream.