Persons with disabilities hold protest in Tbilisi

A group of people with disabilities and their supporters gathered at First Republic Square in Tbilisi to protest the Georgian government's anti-EU turn.

‘Isolation from democratic countries means isolating the entire nation, and especially the isolation of the disability community’, one of the protest participants warned before the group moved to join others outside the parliament on Rustaveli Avenue.

At the gathering, disability rights activist Esma Gumberidze condemned the dismissal of Giga Sopromadze, the Executive Secretary of Tbilisi City Hall’s Council on Disability Issues, following his criticism of the government.Among the protesters was Tatia Datashvili, who was recently reported by the rights group Partnership for Human Rights to have received online messages containing hate speech in response to her criticism of the government.