Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that the Polish Embassy has said knives were not used in the attack.
Several Polish border guards were attacked by assailants in Tbilisi, resulting in two of them being hospitalised with severe injuries and requiring surgery. The guards were reportedly attacked with metal rods.
The news was first reported by Polish border guard spokesperson Andrzej Juźwiak on Thursday. Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński later added that the border guards were in Georgia as part of an operation to deport 10 Georgian nationals and nine Pakistanis from Poland.
According to the Polish Border Guard, the majority of the 10 Georgian nationals had committed crimes while in Poland, while the Pakistanis did not have the appropriate documents. It was the eleventh return operation this year by officers from the Foreigners’ Directorate of the Border Guard Headquarters, in cooperation with Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.
Kierwiński said the attack was carried out by Tbilisi residents, and occurred when the Polish officers were out in the city after their mission had ended. He added that the attackers had already been apprehended by the Georgian authorities.
The Georgian Interior Ministry separately issued a statement on the incident, saying that two individuals, identified only as S.J. and E.G., had been arrested in connection to the crime. Both had been convicted of serious crimes in the past, the ministry stated.
According to the ministry, the two individuals had confronted the Polish officers at a restaurant, during which E.G. assaulted them with a ‘blunt object’. The ministry added that the assailants fled the scene afterwards before being detained by police the following day.
Neither the Polish officials nor the Georgian Interior Ministry commented on if there was a possible connection between the deportation mission and the assault.
Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning
