Tbilisi court fines protesters against actions of Russian border guards

The Tbilisi City Court has fined two activists of the NGO "Free Zone" for their insulting cries about Russian president Vladimir Putin during a protest action against actions of Russian border guards on the border with South Ossetia.

The demonstration, during which the activists of the "Free Zone" David Gogokhiya and Parnavaz Chkadua were detained and later fined by the court, took place near the office of the Social-Democratic Party of Georgia, which was visited at that moment by the Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. The participants were protesting against the fact that the Georgian government had failed to react more harshly to the fact that on May 27 Russian border guards, according to the Georgian party, penetrated 300 meters into the territory of Georgia from the administrative border with South Ossetia and stretched barbed wire there.

According to David Gogokhiya, when the police demanded that the protesters should disperse, he said a curse on Putin in low voice. After that, policemen approached Gogokhiya, and one of them asked about what he wanted. The activist repeated the curse.

The policemen took him to the police station of the Mtatsminda-Krtsanisi District.

An hour later Gogokhiya was released. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that an administrative case was opened against him. The trial was scheduled for May 6; and the court fined the activist by 100 laris. David Gogokhiya explained his offensive words by his extreme discontent with Putin's policy towards Georgia.

The arrest of the two activists of the NGO "Free Zone" for their obscene cries during a rally in Tbilisi caused outrage of some Georgian users of the Facebook. Their posts express outrage with the fact that on 17 May the police took no action, when opponents of sexual minorities and their accompanying priests shouted out threats and used foul language.