Protest Rally in front of Supreme Court Disbanded, Activists Arrested

Salome Achba

The protest rally “I am a prisoner!” held on April 4th in front of the Supreme Court ended with the incident. The law-enforcement officials detained the members of Resistance Movement and the Civil Movement of IDPs.

The incident occurred after the protestors threw eggs to the Supreme Court building. The protestors hung the mourning coronet at the door of Supreme Court building with the  message: “mourning for justice.”

The law-enforcement officials also detained one of the organizers of the protest rally, the deputy of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia Ada Marshania and the member of Georgian Party Ketino Goginashvili.

According to Lasha Chkhartishvili, the head of human rights defense area of Conservative Party, Ketino Goginashvili is a sister of political prisoner Shalva Goginashvili.

The detainees were transferred to the preliminary detention cell. The court discussed the possible administrative sentence at night, as usual.

The court process started at 00.00 am in Tbilisi City Court. The judge Koba Gotsiridze discussed the case.

Following individuals were brought before the court: the deputy of Abkhazia Supreme Council Ada Marshania, the member of Resistance Movement Shota Glurjidze, members of Georgian Party Ketevan Goginashvili and Tengiz Ghlonti, the representatives of Civil Movement of IDPs Genadi Kekelia and Irakli Tsikolia, also the member of Free Democrats Gocha Chkhaidze and other participants of the protest rally – Madona Gogua, Davit Kochiev and Grigol Kharebava, the brother of Zviad Kharebava, former assistant of ex-Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli.

The wife of Grigol Kharebava, Nana Nachkebia stated with the Human Rights Center that her husband has not committed any wrongdoings at the protest rally: “He was detained for no reason. We have the photos taken at the protest rally where it is obvious that Grigol Kharebava has not committed any wrongdoings. I know my husband and I know what he can do. He would not have thrown eggs to the Court building, neither would he have committed other wrongdoins,” – states Nana Nachkebia, spouse of Grigol Kharebava.

According to one of the organizers of the protest rally, the head of media union Objective Irma Inashvili, the protest rally was authorized and they had not committed any wrongdoings.

“The first part of the protest rally was held in front of Rustaveli where more than 2 thousand people gathered. Then we moved to the Supreme Court. Small informative action was held in front of the court. When it was over and the young people put the mourning coronet at the door of the court building, patrol police started acting which was mobilized at the office of TV Company Alania. Then the patrol police officials were assuring that the population residing nearby protested about the action. This is a lie. People had not expressed any protest. On the contrary, they joined the mood of the protestors. The protestors expressed themselves in a peaceful way. As for the fact of throwing eggs to the building of the Ministry, let us recall that in 2010 142 prisoners have been killed in the prisons! On this light, can we talk about whether or not the parents of the killed prisoners threw eggs at the court building?! On the light of this statistics, can we talk about throwing eggs?!” – stated Irma Inashvili while talking with Human Rights Center.

The members of the Resistance Movement and the leaders of the opposition gathered in front of the court: Nino Burjanadze, Irakli Batiashvili, Bidzina Gegidze, Lasha Chkhartishvili, the singer Giorgi Gachehiladze and others…

Resistance Movement thinks that the arrest of protestors at the Supreme Court building was a challenge from the government. The special statement of the movement states the corresponding.

“We, the members of the Resistance Movement will not yield any our requests and will continue our protest rallies which will be joined by more and more people. The persecution and arrest of peaceful protestors is a challenge from the government that we accepted. We will not surrender! We will fight until we win,” – reads the statement.

According to them, the protest rally in front of the Supreme Court was peaceful, but the patrol police made a siege and tried to intentionally arrest the participants.

“When the national channels systematically cover the protest rallies happening in other countries the participants of which destroy the windows, burn and explode buildings and physically fight against police, Georgian law-enforcement bodies try to openly provoke the peaceful protestors and arrest them afterwards,” – states the Resistance Movement.

Tbilisi City Court imposed administrative arrest against four detainees and fined six.

The representative of Civil Movement of IDPs Genadi Kekelia was imposed with 25-day arrest, another member of the movement Irakli Tsikolia – 20-day arrest. Grigol Kharebava and the representative of Georgian Party Davit Kochiev were imposed with 20-day arrest.

Ada Marshania, the deputy of Abkhazia Supreme Council, Shota Glurjidze, the member of the Resistance Movement, Ketevan Goginashvili and Tengiz Ghlonti from the Georgian Party, the activist of Free Democrats Gocha Ckhaidze and one more participant of the protest rally, Madona Gogua were imposed with 400 GEL fine.

As the lawyer of Gocha Ckhaidze Shalva Shavgulidze stated to interpressnews, the process in the Tbilisi City Court ended at the dawn at 4:00 am. According to him, the judge refused to examine the video material and relied only on the testimonies of the policemen.

One of the organizers of the action Lasha Chkhartishvili states that the video recording clearly shows how several individuals were detained by the police quite afar from the action: “We presented the request to the Court to check the video recording of the external surveillance of the pawnshop located near the place of the protest rally. Our request was not rendered. This video recording clearly shows i.e how Ada Marshania was detained for approximately a kilometer and a half afar near the Cinema House. Also, three more participants of the protest rally were detained at Rustaveli, near the store Garderobi and not directly at the protest rally as the law-enforcement officials assure. This would have been clearly reflected on the video recording of the external surveillance of the camera. However, the court did not render our request,” – stated Lasha Ckhartishvili to Human Rights Center.

The detainees were found guilty in the administrative wrongdoing, namely small hooliganism and disobedience to the requests of the policemen.

interpressnews