Police Detain Two Protesters in Georgia

Activists today blocked traffic on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi demanding the release of political prisoners. Shortly before the start of the action, it became known that two protesters had been detained, whom the police suspect of group violence.

Activists in Tbilisi today, as every evening, blocked traffic on Rustaveli Avenue. The demands of supporters of European integration are unchanged: holding new parliamentary elections and the release of political prisoners, Publika reports.

Today it became known that two participants in the protest on August 1 had been detained on charges of group violence, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported. The investigation is being conducted under Part 1 of Article 126 of the Criminal Code, which provides for up to two years in prison.

In a video filmed on August 1 on Rustaveli Avenue, one of the protesters says that a provocateur who came to the action dropped a knife. Presumably, we are talking about the incident for which the police arrested two protesters today. According to the publication, these are Tornike Tokhshua and Mindia Shervashidze.

Eyewitnesses of the incident in posts posted on social networks say that Beka Gotsiridze, on whose complaint two protesters were arrested, cursed the protesters, probably after which, according to eyewitnesses, a knife fell out of Gotsiridze's pocket. The knife was found by one of the protesters and handed over to the police, the publication writes.

Lawyer Saba Brachveli, commenting on the detention of protesters on Rustaveli Tornike Tokhshua and Mindia Shervashidze, said that he knew them both well from the protests. Brachveli claims that on the day when Beka Gotsiridze came to Rustaveli with a knife, it was Tornike Toshkhua and Mindia Shervashidze who took the knife from him and handed it over to the police, Pirveli TV reports.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated that the persecution of those who are called political prisoners is justified.

"Georgia has an effective justice system that ensures that cases are resolved in accordance with standards and legislation. As for these 30 prisoners in general, who are called prisoners of conscience - in fact, these people are under specific charges due to unscrupulous actions. At the end of November and beginning of December last year, up to a thousand people participated in the violence, and only 30 of them were detained, which indicates high standards. In fact, Georgia has high standards of investigation and trial, and that is why the figure is really 3%. You remember the scale of violence that was carried out at the end of last year, and against the background of this scale of violence, only 30 prisoners, indicates high standards," Interpressnews quoted him on August 15.

* the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are prohibited in Russia.