By Felix Light
TBILISI (Reuters) – Marina Terishvili's 75-year-old son, Mamuka, was shot dead at a nationalist rally in Georgia in 1992. Now her other son, Giorgi, has been arrested for his role in protests against perceived Russian influence in Georgia. Homeland.
She added that seven police cars stopped at her home in the capital, Tbilisi, on Friday and detained Giorgi, a 52-year-old taxi driver.
He has been placed in pre-trial detention for two months on charges of “participating in mass violence,” according to a rights group and local media, and faces up to six years in prison if convicted, as part of a widespread crackdown on demonstrators who clashed nightly with demonstrators. . Police for about two weeks.
The Georgian Young Lawyers Association, defending human rights, said he had not yet filed a petition, and Marina Terishvili said she did not know the reason for his arrest.
“I cannot deny that he went to the parades, because he had a brother who died on February 2, 1992, and he went there to honor his soul,” Marina said, adding that Giorgi could not bear the thought of that. His younger brother died in vain.
Mamuka was 17 when he was killed during the short civil war that followed Georgia's exit from the Soviet Union in 1991, which ended 200 years of Russian rule.
Giorgi is among more than 400 people who authorities and human rights groups say were detained during protests against government moves to delay the South Caucasus country's attempt to join the European Union.
About 30 of them face criminal charges, most of them related to allegations of “mass violence” aimed at overthrowing the government. Among those imprisoned are two leaders of the country's pro-European Union opposition.
Human rights groups say the crackdown is unprecedented in Georgia, a country that was seen as among the most pro-Western and democratic among the Soviet Union's successor states.
fireworks
Some demonstrators threw fireworks and other projectiles at police, claiming they were defending themselves against attacks with tear gas and batons. The Interior Ministry said on Monday that more than 150 police officers were injured.
The Georgian Dream party, which officials say won elections in October that the opposition says was marred by fraud, sparked widespread anger in the country of 3.7 million when it announced last month the suspension of EU accession talks until 2028. .
The Georgian Dream company says it prefers to pursue a practical policy with Russia, which supports two regions that separated from Georgia after its exit from the Soviet Union. The party says its goal is to maintain peace amid the war in Ukraine, which has been torn apart by invading Russian forces since early 2022.
Western countries have condemned the crackdown, and the European Union's ambassador to Georgia said on Monday that it deserved sanctions.
Georgia's Ombudsman Levan Ioseliani, a former opposition politician appointed by Georgian Dream, said on Tuesday that his office had visited 327 detainees, including 225 who said they had been mistreated and 157 with visible injuries.
Police reported finding fireworks and materials to make firebombs in two opposition party headquarters. Both sides said the items had been planted.
At a press conference on Monday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze described the parties' headquarters as a “hotbed of violence” and said their attempt to seize power had failed.
Masked men in attacks on black theater
Gangs of black-masked men have begun attacking opposition politicians, activists, and some journalists in recent days.
Opposition supporters refer to the gangs as “Titushki,” a Ukrainian word meaning thugs who attacked opponents of the pro-Russian government before the country's 2014 Maidan revolution that prompted the president to flee to Moscow.
Two journalists from a pro-opposition television channel suffered apparent head injuries in an attack on December 7, which was filmed live from one of the protests.
On the same day, Koba Khabbazi, a prominent member of the opposition Alliance for Change party, was seriously injured in the head after being attacked inside the building that houses his party’s headquarters.
Surveillance camera footage obtained by Reuters shows about 15 men dressed in black entering the building, confronting Khabbazi and pushing him down the stairs before punching and kicking him in the head as he lay motionless on the ground.
Speaking to Reuters two days later, Khabbazi, a 57-year-old former lawmaker, blamed the Georgian government for the attack.
“Of course the government is behind this,” Khabbazi said, his head wrapped in bandages. “This government is built on violence.”
Georgian authorities said they were not involved in the attacks and condemned them. Ruling party officials indicated that the opposition was the one that carried out these operations to frame the Georgian dream.
