Human Rights Watch decries ‘shocking, blatantly retaliatory’ police violence

International rights group Human Rights Watch has stated that ‘police and other security forces have used brutal violence against largely peaceful protesters in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi’.

‘The level of the authorities’ violence against largely peaceful protesters is shocking, blatantly retaliatory, and violates Georgia’s domestic laws and international norms,’ said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

‘The scale of the police ill-treatment of protesters and the failure of Georgian authorities to hold them accountable for it indicates they either authorised or condoned the violence’.

‘Georgian authorities should free all those detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to assembly […]. There needs to be a reckoning and accountability for the broken bones and other injuries police intentionally inflicted on so many people’.