Three activists of "November 7" movement detained on anniversary of "revolutions of roses" in Georgia

On November 23, at 6 p.m., near the building of the Georgian parliament, three activists of the social movement "November 7" - Dzhaba Dzhishkariani, Dagi Tsoguriya and Irakli Kordzaya - were detained. They were found guilty of breaking the law on rallies.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that one hour after detention the three activists were brought to the court to face charges of holding an illegal rally.

According to Manana Kakabadze, leader of the human rights NGO "Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights", three individual administrative cases were opened. However, as she said, "there was no rally." "Just three persons were standing on the sidewalk in front of the parliament; and it was impossible to say whether they were holding a rally or just standing in the Rustaveli Avenue," she said.

"The three guys held a protest action dated to the celebrations of the 'revolution of roses' with the aim to draw attention to the case of Batu Robakidze, who perished right five years ago, on the revolution day, from hands of the police. Within these five years, his death was never investigated," said Ms Kakabadze and added that apart from Robakidze's portrait, the three demonstrators also carried a portrait of Sandro Gerkvliani, killed in 2006 by policemen.

Apart from a non-sanctioned demonstration, the detainees were accused of resistance to the police.

According to Manana Kakabadze, at the trial the defendants' advocates insisted that the court should consider the video from the place of detention, evidencing that there was no resistance.

However, as Gela Nikoleishvili said, statements were announced at the trial of the policemen themselves, who asserted that there was resistance. "According to one of them, Mr Tsoguriya resisted to detention, insulted and physically injured the policemen," the advocate said.

The court refused to consider the video as material evidence.

The trial ended late at night on November 23. According to the decision of the court, Dzhaba Dzhishkariani, Dagi Tsoguriya and Irakli Kordzaya were found guilty of holding a non-sanctioned rally and resisting to the police and punished by a fine of 500 laris (about 300 US dollars) each.