In Tbilisi, police attempted to violently detain an elderly man who had confronted officers over their mistreatment of another citizen. The footage of the event quickly spread on social media, reigniting public debate about arbitrary and violent actions by police toward citizens.
The incident took place on Friday, near Tbilisi’s old town. According to video footage recorded from a nearby building, the confrontation occurred on the road between police officers and a man. At that moment, a passerby — later identified as Mamuka Samarguliani — appeared at the scene and shouted at the officers, urging them to stop their action.
As later reported, one of the officers told him it was none of his business. In response, an angry Samarguliani told the police: ‘The day will come when you'll be screwed’.
Following the exchange, one officer grabbed Samarguliani by his clothes. Others soon joined in, forcing him toward a nearby car and attempting to detain him violently. As a result, the man lost consciousness.
The violent action outraged bystanders, and a young man attempted to help Samarguliani while he was still conscious — but the police prevented him from doing so.
Later, in TV interviews, Samarguliani said he was outraged by the way the police treated the other man.
‘I’m against all forms of aggression […] I’m against people throwing stones at the police […] I’m against any kind of violation. But I’m also against the violation of a person’s most basic rights’, he told TV Formula.
‘After something like this, how is a person supposed to feel like they’re living in a country?’ he added.
According to Samarguliani, after he regained consciousness, the police approached him again and tried to persuade him to get into a police car — which he refused.
He said the police interpreted his earlier comment as verbal abuse. In the video, Samarguliani can be heard saying, ‘I didn’t curse!’ — but the police wouldn’t be convinced.
Footage of the incident spread quickly across social media, with one video alone garnering 1.2 million views on the Facebook page of the opposition platform Mtavari Arkhi.
Among those who reacted to the incident was former Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili.
‘What more does [the government] have to do for the last remaining Mohicans of Georgian Dream to finally open their eyes[…]’ she wrote on Facebook.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) also issued a statement, describing the incident as yet another example of ‘the arbitrary use of detention — an extreme measure — by representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’.
The organisation stated that the citizen’s expression of anger could not serve as legal grounds for detention, especially considering that the statement was made in the context of criticising police conduct.
Amid the widespread public reaction, the Interior Ministry also released a statement, though only a small portion of it addressed the episode involving Samarguliani. The statement claimed that the video footage ‘did not reflect the full picture of the incident’.
According to the ministry, the incident began when police stopped a moped on Amaghleba Street for inspection. At that point, the driver of a passing vehicle approached the officers and ‘verbally insulted’ them. In response, police asked the man to take a drug and alcohol test, after which he allegedly became more aggressive and was detained. The ministry further stated that another passenger from the same vehicle physically assaulted an officer.
The statement concluded that a third individual — presumably referring to Samarguliani — then appeared and ‘tried to interfere with the lawful actions being carried out’, during which he ‘fell ill’.
The statement made no mention of the police officers’ treatment of Samarguliani, but it emphasised that ‘all individuals involved in the incident will be subject to actions defined by law’.
It remains unclear how the police intend to proceed in Samarguliani’s case. He told journalists that he was made to sign a written statement and was summoned to the police station, though he did not specify under which article.
OC Media has reached out to the ministry’s press office for comment on the matter.
