Local NGO’s detail ‘pre-planned campaign of torture’
A group of local NGOs has accused Georgian Dream of pre-planning a campaign of systematic torture against peaceful demonstrators.
‘The Interior Ministry had previously determined brutal methods and a torture system to disperse the demonstrators in order to suppress the demonstrations’, they said.
The accusation came at a joint press briefing byNino Lomjaria, a former Public Defender and founder of Georgia’s European Orbit, Eka Gigauri, head of Transparency International — Georgia, and Londa Toloraia from the Rule of Law Centre.
Along with beating protesters, they noted that riot police robbed detainees, taking their clothes, shoes, mobile phones, bags, wallets, glasses, crosses, and other personal belongings.
They also cited a case in which riot police threw a tear gas canister into a minivan where detainees had been beaten and closed the door.
‘Detainees were cursed, insulted, threatened with death, rape, and breaking body parts’, they added.
They also reported a case of mock execution, during which police drove a protester to the area around Lisi Lake on the outskirts of Tbilisi and threatened to ‘kill and bury them on the spot’.
They said law enforcement officers also humiliated detainees after beating them.
‘[Law enforcement officers] took photos and videos depicting their mockery and humiliation, and forced [detainees] to say derogatory phrases about themselves or to praise Zviad Kharazishvili [the Director of the Special Tasks Department]’, the statement said adding that in some cases, the video of the beaten detainees was personally recorded by Kharazishvili.
They said that the vast majority of detention reports drawn up by police officers used identical text, including the same grammatical errors.
The groups also accused police of giving false testimony in court while also describing the alleged offences committed by detainees in ‘general terms’.
They also said such witnessed were unable to answer critical questions, and when several law enforcement officers were presented as witnesses in the same case, their testimony often contradicted each other.
