Detained Tbilisi protester Kukharchuk goes on hunger strike

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Since July 28, Ukrainian citizen Sergei Kukharchuk, who was detained at a protest in Tbilisi, has been on a hunger strike, protesting against the ban on video recording in the courtroom and restrictions on phone calls to relatives.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, Sergei Kukharchuk, among 11 participants in the protests in Tbilisi, was accused of participating in group violence (Part 2 of Article 225 of the Criminal Code of Georgia).

Lawyer Nikoloz Legashvili, representing the interests of Sergei Kukharchuk, reported on July 29 on his page on the social network Facebook* that his client had declared hunger strike.

According to him, Kukharchuk, who is a citizen of Ukraine and has Georgian citizenship, began his hunger strike on July 28, since he was not allowed to call his relatives for 20 days. "The media does not have access to court hearings, so his family members do not have the opportunity to see, communicate or follow the trial of Sergei Kukharchuk," Legashvili added.

Before the court hearing on July 29, Kukharchuk gave his lawyer a statement, which, however, Judge Nino Galustashvili did not allow to be read out. In it, the arrested man raised the issue of video recording of court hearings. He said that together with a friend, they repeatedly filed petitions for permission to film so that relatives and friends would be aware of how the trial was going. Kukharchuk believes that the court is deliberately sabotaging the resolution of this issue by hiding what is happening at the hearings from the public, writes the Tbilisi life telegram channel.

Kukharchuk also said that he has not been allowed to call his relatives since July 8. On July 16, a social worker told him that four visits had been replaced with phone calls. However, on July 25, when the arrested person tried to exercise this right, it turned out that the ban had not been lifted.

Recall that since November 28, 2024, protesters in Tbilisi have been holding daily rallies outside the Georgian Parliament and blocking traffic on Rustaveli Avenue, demanding the release of all arrested supporters of European integration and the appointment of new parliamentary elections.

Caucasian Knot" published a report "The Main Thing About the Persecution of Protesters in Georgia". The "Caucasian Knot" has collected materials about the parliamentary elections and the protests that followed them on the page "Elections in Georgia-2024".

* Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.