13:21, 29 April 2004

Leader of Our Adjaria movement beaten in Adjaria

One of the leaders of the united opposition movement Our Adjaria, Tamaz Diasamidze, was beaten in the town of Kobuleti on the territory of Georgia's Adjarian autonomy yesterday, April 28, reported the office of the Our Adjaria movement, which is in opposition to the present authorities of the autonomy.

Tamaz Diasamidze and some of his supporters left Tbilisi for Batumi in a passenger train on April 27. In the morning of April 28, a group of men in mufti made Tamaz Diasamidze and the people accompanying him get out of the train at the station in Kobuleti, inflicted bodily injuries on them, and demanded that they leave the territory of Adjaria immediately, reported the movement's activists.

Commenting on the incident, David Berdzenishvili, a Georgian MP and a leader of the Our Adjaria movement, blamed the leadership of the Adjarian interior ministry for the beating of the opposition activists. "Adjarian Interior Minister Djemal Gogitidze personally led the operation against the representative of the movement," Mr Berdzenishvili said.

Source: Novosti-Gruzia Information Agency