Twenty-one-year-old Georgian arrested for ‘assaulting’ police during election protests

Georgia’s Interior Ministry has announced the arrest of a 21-year-old protester on charges of assaulting the police during a protest in Tbilisi against electoral fraud during October’s parliamentary vote.

The Interior Ministry announced the arrest on Thursday, accusing the man of physically assaulting police officers on Melikishvili Street.

Protesters against electoral fraud this week erected tents and makeshift barricades at a central intersection connecting Melikishvili to Chavchavadze Avenue. 

The ministry said that the man could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty.

While the Interior Ministry only identified the detained youth by his initials, Netgazeti reported that the protester’s name was Mate Devidze. 

Since protesters began setting up encampments at the interaction on Sunday, police have been pushing them off the intersection regularly since Tuesday morning. On that day, police dispersed the protesters and violently apprehended some of them.

Local media reported that at least 16 people were detained on Tuesday.

The protesters’ encampments have repeatedly paralysed traffic at the intersection near Tbilisi State University (TSU), which demonstrators entered on Tuesday night to stage a sit-in in demand of the rector’s resignation.

The protesters at TSU accuse the university’s administration of allowing the Interior Ministry to deploy riot police in its courtyard.

On Wednesday morning, the ministry issued a statement warning protesters against blocking the intersection, stating that Georgia’s protest law prohibits blocking roads ‘unless the need for this is determined by the number of participants’.

‘At this point, the number of people attending the gathering on Chavchavadze Avenue and the adjacent territory of Varaziskhevi does not require blocking the traffic roadway’, they said.

The official results of 26 October’s elections gave the ruling Georgian Dream party a large majority, with 54% of the vote. However, local media and observer groups have documented widespread vote rigging by the ruling party.

[Read more: Editorial | Georgia’s rigged election]

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