Georgian Interior Ministry files lawsuit against severely beaten journalist

The Interior Ministry has filed a lawsuit against Aleksandre Keshelashvili, a journalist and photojournalist for the online media outlet Publika. He was severely beaten by law enforcement officers at a pro-European rally.

On Wednesday, Publika stated that the Interior Ministry had charged him with an administrative case of petty hooliganism and disobedience to the police during a rally on 29 November.

Speaking to RFE/RL, Keshelashvili said that he received a call from the Tbilisi City Court on Wednesday and was summoned to appear on 25 February.

‘They reminded me that I had “violated the order” on 29 November. Of course, I clarified, why after so long? They told me that now, on 11 February, the Interior Ministry had [filled the complaint]’, Keshelashvili said.

In a Facebook post on 29 November, Keshelashvili wrote that upon his detention, he tried to tell the police that he was a journalist, but said that it only made the police — who were masked — insult and beat him more.

Keshelashvili said that the police confiscated his cameras, press ID, and gas mask.

He said that to this day, none of the confiscated cameras have been returned to him.

‘In a completely incomprehensible situation, I was detained and beaten by masked men. I was on the side, but I still tried to retreat and at that moment they grabbed my hand. From the beginning, I kept repeating that I was a journalist, but I think it had the opposite effect, they were still beating me and then they [beat] me [more] because I was a journalist’, he recalled in his Facebook post.

After being taken to the police station, he learned that he was being detained under administrative law.

Keshelashvili did not agree with the detention report filled out by the police and refused to sign it, media reported.

‘When the doctors met us [at the police station], they demanded that we [those detained at the demonstration] be taken immediately [to the hospital]’, he recalled.

‘One of the detainees was losing consciousness, they couldn’t stop me from bleeding, my nose was in a bad state, my head was also bloody. I can’t say that they took me quickly, they didn’t even remove my handcuffs for a long time, they didn’t even give me water’.

According to him, the police filed a report, claiming that he had confessed, but he denied that he had done so.

‘[The police report claimed] as if I was swearing loudly and insulting the police. Such a lie, I didn’t sign it, and after that they took me to the clinic’.

According to the Publika, after the episodes of detention and beating, Keshelashvili underwent surgery on his nose. The Special Investigation Service has launched an investigation into the violence against him.

No law enforcement official has been punished in the case involving Keshelashvili or any other incident of journalists being beaten or mistreated by police.

Keshelashvili has suggested that the prosecution of journalists is aimed at ensuring that state agencies ‘intimidate and restrict’ the media.

The political crisis in Georgia deepened when the Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced in late November that the government was halting Georgia’s EU bid until 2028, sparking daily mass protests. More than 400 demonstrators have been reportedly detained during the protests thus far.

Since the protests began, law enforcement officers and unidentified masked people have assaulted a number of protesters, including tens of journalists covering the demonstrations.

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