Georgian activist kidnapped and beaten by unknown assailants

Georgian activist kidnapped and beaten by unknown assailants

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A Georgian activist has said that masked individuals kidnapped, robbed, beat, and threatened to kill him in the central Georgian city of Gori, connecting the attack to his criticism of the government.

Vakho Pitskhelauri’s kidnapping was initially reported on Sunday by his wife, Teo Bzishvili, who said the activist was on his way to the store when he was abducted by masked men.

According to Pitskhelauri — who spoke to the media after reportedly escaping his attackers — three masked men forced him into a van near his home before driving him to a field several kilometers away.

‘They told me they couldn’t [get the engine to start] and asked me to help them push the van. When I got close, they immediately opened the back and threw me inside and put their masks on. They kidnapped me and started beating me on the way’, Pitskhelauri told TV station Mtavari.

He said the kidnappers stole his phone, wallet, and keys.

‘They knew where they were coming, there were three of them, they did everything in a planned and organised way. On the way, they threatened to kill me, to disfigure my face’, Pitskhelauri said.

‘When I started screaming, I could see houses in the distance […], I noticed that they got scared and somehow I slipped out of their hands’.

In a Facebook broadcast by his wife following Pitskhelauri’s return, blood is visible on his face.

Pitskhelauri, who has participated in protests against the government’s EU U-turn, linked the kidnapping to his activism.

‘I connect what is happening in the country today to those processes, because they deliberately caught me in my neighborhood, [telling me] “we know who you are”. I covered my face with my hands, they hit me everywhere’, he recalled.

The Interior Ministry has reportedly opened an investigation for group violence.

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