Georgian police begin raids on opposition parties and protest organisers

Georgian police have conducted raids of the offices of opposition groups as well as the homes of individual protest organisers as the government’s crackdown on dissent intensifies.

On Wednesday, police raided the joint offices of the opposition Droa and Girchi — More Freedom parties. They also raided the office of the opposition Ahali party. All three are members of the Coalition for Change opposition grouping.

During the raids, police arrested Nika Gvaramia, one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change.Gela Khasaia, another member of the Coalition for Change, was also detained.

Gvaramia’s lawyer, Dito Sadzaglishvili, told Mtavari Arkhi that the opposition leader was physically assaulted by the police when he was detained — possibly on charges of hooliganism and disobeying the police.

‘He was hit in the stomach and after one of the blows, he passed out for a few seconds due to shortness of breath. Overall, his health is satisfactory’, he said.

Sadzaglishvili earlier said that Gvaramia was being held at a detention centre in Marneuli.

Later that night, police also detained Strong Georgia member Aleko Elisashvili and Coalition for Change member Zurab Datunashvili following a scuffle outside the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel on Liberty Square, where the opposition was meeting.

Elisashvili, who is an MP, was reportedly attacked for attacking Ali Babayev, a Georgian Dream member. Elisashvili’s charges count as a criminal offence, meaning that he can get charged and prosecuted for them regardless of his status as MP.

Police also raided the offices of the opposition Unity — National Movement’s youth wing.

Vepkhia Kasradze and Vaso Kadzelishvili, two members of the opposition Strong Georgia group, were also detained, according to the group. Their group said that the arrests were preceded by allegations from the pro-government TV channel Imedi, claiming that the detainees had discussed ‘violent plans’ during the recent street demonstrations.

Police also targeted several protest organisers. Nancy Woland and Ilia Ghlonti, the co-founders of Daitove, had their homes searched, while Ghlonti was later detained. Daitove is a Facebook group launched during the foreign agent law protests used to allow people from outside of Tbilisi to participate in the protests.

Zviad Tsetskhladze, the founder of Dapioni, another group helping organise the protests, was also detained.

Police also raided the flat of Saba Jajanidze, an assistant professor at Ilia State University.

Police also raided the office of GEUT, another protest group. 

In a statement, the Interior Ministry said they had arrested seven people for ‘organising and leading a group violence’, which carries a sentence of up to nine years in prison. They added that during the raids, they had arrested six more people.

They claimed to have seized helmets, respirators, fireworks, radios, computer equipment, Molotov cocktails, paint as evidence

Commenting on the raids, Giorgi Oniani, the deputy director of Transparency International — Georgia, said Georgia was ‘sliding toward Belarus-style authoritarian rule’.

International condemnation continues

As protests entered their seventh night in Georgia, international condemnation and criticism of the government’s handling of the protests, and, most recently, its arrest of activists and opposition figures, grew.

The Helsinki Commission has published a statement by its chair, Representative Joe Wilson, criticising the Georgian government’s crackdown on protesters and arrest of opposition members.

‘The de-facto Georgian government has shed all pretense of democracy and has now started arresting innocent activists and peaceful members of the opposition in their homes and places of work’, he said.

‘Make no mistake: Georgian Dream is using Kremlin-style dictatorial tactics.’

‘The US government must respond to punish those involved in perpetrating violence and brutality against innocent Georgians immediately. If we do not act now, Georgian Dream will continue escalating their campaign of violence and brutality to levels we have not seen in the country in decades.’

He called on the Department of State and European states to announce personal sanctions against Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri, and ‘all the other officials for orchestrating this crackdown’.

Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabrielius Landsbergis, has also called the level of violence against protesters in Georgia ‘unacceptable’ and has called on more countries to join the Baltic states in ‘sanctioning the people responsible’.

The three Baltic states — Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia — have all imposed travel sanctions on Georgian Dream officials, with Lithuania and Estonia sanctioning 11 Georgians, including Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili and Interior Minister Gomelauri.