Georgian police officer ‘loses vision in one eye’ after November protest violence

Georgia’s Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze has said that a police officer has lost sight in his right eye as a result of violence during 28–29 November’s protests.

Darakhevlidze’s statements were a part of a video shared on Wednesday, along with an accompanying text, which noted that ‘the perpetrator of the crime has not been identified’.

According to Darakhvelidze, the injured person was Detective Chief Inspector Giorgi Zabakhidze of the Didube-Chughureti Main Division of the Tbilisi Police Department.

Darakhvelidze stated in the video that Zabakhidze was in the police cordon near the parliament on the evening of 28 November.

‘He was hit in the right eye by a blunt object thrown by a violent member of the protest’, Darakhvelidze said, noting that Zabakhidze had fallen after being hit.

The attached text noted that Zabakhidze had suffered serious injuries from the incident.

Neither Darakhvelidze nor the attached text explained the details, such as what type of object hit him or under which article the investigation was initiated. They also did not explain why the information about this alleged incident was only shared five months later.

In the early days of the demonstrations, riot police repeatedly and violently dispersed protesters using tear gas and water cannons. There were also widespread reports that protesters who were detained were being systematically beaten, robbed, and humiliated during their detention, while unidentified masked men also attacked protesters and journalists on numerous occasions.

Protesters also used violence against the police, including launching fireworks, throwing stones and other objects, and on several occasions, throwing Molotov cocktails at police lines.

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Darakhvelidze stated that 171 Interior Ministry employees were injured ‘as a result of attacks carried out by members of the violent group of the protest’.

It is the first time that the government has named a police officer who was allegedly injured in the months-long protest movement that has engulfed Georgia since October 2024.

Following the October 2024 parliamentary elections, during which widespread electoral violations were recorded, opposition parties refused to take up their seats in parliament.

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OC Media collected evidence and first-hand accounts of an array of violations on the Georgian parliamentary election day. On the election day, OC Media dispatched a dozen journalists into several regions of Georgia to monitor the voting and counting process. The following details only the violations witnessed first-hand by our reporters. The violations varied from pressure and intimidation to outright vote buying. Groups of men patrolling the outside of polling stations were a universal occu

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The political crisis 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 during which more than 400 demonstrators were reported to have been detained thus far.

Since November, the government has repeatedly spoken out about police officers injured during the protests, although their identities had not been disclosed to the public.

Despite the Special Investigation Service launching an investigation into several alleged cases of police abuse during this time, not a single police officer has been arrested.

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