Masked Georgian police filmed violently detaining TV Pirveli cameraperson

On Tuesday, ten masked Georgian police officers were filmed violently detaining Lasha Jioshvili, a TV Pirveli cameraperson, charging him with disobeying the police.

Footage of Jioshvili’s arrest surfaced on social media on Tuesday evening, showing around ten masked men, later confirmed to have been police officers, detaining him in an underground parking lot near Rustaveli Avenue. Jioshvili was taking part in an anti-government protest on the avenue.

Several people have shared footage of his detention, some of whom can be heard asking Jioshvili for his name and demanding that the masked men identify themselves and to let Jioshvili go.

One of the men, who was unmasked, identified himself as being ‘from the police’ to Tako Kheladze, a bystander filming Jioshvili’s detention. Later on Wednesday, TV Pirveli identified the man as Zaza Nozadze, Mukhiani’s police chief.

In Kheladze’s video, Jioshvili can be heard saying that the men were ‘putting something’ in his pocket.

On the same day, TV Pirveli published a report filled out by employees of the Public Defender’s Office after a meeting with Jioshvili, saying that the men failed to identify themselves as they were detaining Jioshvili, did not explain his rights, searched him, and prevented him from contacting his lawyer and family.

In one of the videos, Jioshvili can be heard saying that he was being detained for holding a banner during the protest, which read ‘today, we all agree on the importance of condoms’.

The protest on Tuesday coincided with the birthday of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party. Protesters mocked Ivanishvili throughout the night.

During the protest, protesters also burnt a colourful effigy of Zviad (Khareba) Kharazishvili, the head of the Interior Ministry’s Special tasks Department — the agency responsible for the riot police.

Both Kharazishvili and Ivanishvili have been sanctioned by the US.

Following Jioshvili’s detention, the Interior Ministry confirmed that he was detained on administrative charges for disobeying the police.

Keti Tsulukidze, who had witnessed Jioshvili’s detention, told TV Pirveli that after leaving the protest, they saw ‘a boy with a flag running and at least ten people chasing him’.

TV Pirveli identified one more law enforcement officer, who they said had participated in Jioshvili’s detention:  Zaza Patsatsia, ‘a high-ranking official at the Mukhiani Police Department’.

Jioshvili’s whereabouts were unknown for several hours. His lawyer, Tornike Migineishvili, said that Jioshvili was transferred to a detention centre in Zahesi, and that he had a bruise on his left hand due to the police’s use of disproportionate force in his detention.

Migineishvili also wrote on Facebook that the police were demanding that Jioshvili unblock his phone at the detention centre.

In a report published by the Public Defender’s Office, the office’s representatives said that the police exerted psychological pressure on the cameraperson.

‘One police officer said: “If necessary, we’ll take [gunpowder] from [your] home, boy. Why would I put anything [in your pocket] now?”’, read the report, possibly implying that he was threatening to plant evidence on him.

The Special Investigative Service, the agency responsible for investigating police abuse, has yet to comment on the case.

The local civil rights group Social Justice Centre has issued a statement, saying that Jioshvili’s detention ‘once again reveals that Georgian Dream is using arbitrary administrative detentions against peaceful demonstrators for repressive purposes and in this process completely disregards the procedural rights of detainees’.

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