Activist accuses Batumi police chief and 10 other officers of assault

Activist Temur Katamadze, who is detained in Batumi, said that after his arrest, he was physically assaulted by Police Chief Irakli Dgebuadze and 10 police officers.

In a letter sent to the local media outlet Batumelebi, Katamadze stated that in addition to physical abuse, law enforcement officers had used racial slurs against him.

On Thursday, Batumelebi reported that Katamadze had written that police officer Tengiz Kvirkvelia was present during the violence against him. After the beating, Kvirkvelia also told him that he would ‘have to be deported’.

Katamadze was administratively detained during a protest in Batumi against the government’s EU U–turn on 11 January, and was sentenced to five days of administrative detention on charges of disobeying a police officer’s request.

After his release from administrative detention, the activist was re-arrested a few minutes later.

On 17 January, the activist began a hunger strike in protest. The next day, the court sentenced him to three months in prison, which he will serve in a temporary detention centre for foreigners in Tbilisi until the issue of his deportation from the country is resolved, local media reported.

Katamadze is a descendant of Georgian Muslims who were deported from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. In the same letter published by Batumelebi, he said that he has been living in Georgia since 2012 and, despite many attempts, still does not have Georgian citizenship.

‘After my illegal arrest at a protest in front of the Batumi police station on 11 January, Irakli Dgebuadze and 10 police officers physically assaulted me in his office for 10 minutes’, Batumelebi reported, quoting Katamadze’s letter.

‘They hit me on the head and face with their outstretched hands. Two police officers held my hands [while sitting] on the sofa. After this beating, officer Tengiz Kvirkvelia threatened me with the following words: “Finally, you’re here too, flagman [referring to his presence at protests with a flag] grandpa! […] You will now have to be deported’.

‘During [the] beating, they insulted me in an obscene manner […] 10 police officers, including Irakli Dgebuadze, swore at me. They also used racist words, “You dog and Turk, what do you want in Georgia? Get out of here”’.

According to the letter published by Batumelebi, Katamadze asked law enforcement officers not to call him ‘Turk’.

‘Don’t call me Turk, I am not a Turk, I am Georgian in heart and soul’, he said.

‘Then, in my presence, in the same office, Gela Basiladze [who witnessed my beating and insults, he gave orders to the violent police officers], led by Tengiz Kvirkvelia and Beka Ghomidze […] drew up a false arrest report’.

OC Media contacted the Special Investigation Service (SIS) to find out if they started an investigation on the claims of Katamadze. The agency promised to respond at a later date.

The SIS is nominally responsible for investigating abuses by officials, including police officers.

Despite widespread beatings and looting of protesters by police officers being documented during the recent protests, as well as attacks on journalists, the SIS has not brought any charges against officers.

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