Ex-riot police officer Shaishmelashvili says ‘Not a single police officer will move without an order’

In response to a question from journalists about whether police officers acted on their own volition to abuse protesters, ex-riot police officer Irakli Shaishmelashvili, who resigned on 4 December following the government crackdown on street demonstrations, told TV Pirveli that ‘not a single police officer will move without an order’.

‘If [the officer] does not have a specific order to perform some task. If [the officer] does not have an order to carry out a pursuit, [the officer won’t do it]. There may be some misconduct, an individual police officer may exceed their power, but in a group, en masse, constantly? Was it one day, okay, was it discussed? Did something change on the second, [or] third day?’ he said.

‘Shifting the burden of this severity onto those guys undermines the system, [when you have] that you have employees who do not obey you’.