Murman Dumbadze Found in Telavi PDS

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

Former leader of the Adjara office of the Republic Party Murman Dumbadze is in Telavi Pretrial Detention Setting. His lawyer Marekh Mgaloblishvili said Dumbadze was ruthlessly beaten and has numerous injuries on the body. He had not received food for two days and had no access to medical assistance.

Law enforcement officers detained Murman Dumbadze for resistance when dispersing the protest demonstration in Tbilisi on May 26. Dumbadze participated in the demonstrations. Tbilisi City Court sentenced him to 30-day imprisonment. Whereabouts of Murman Dumbadze was not known until May 27. The relatives and former party-colleagues were looking for him in vain. Murman Dumbadze was found in the Telavi PDS in the evening of May 27.

Republic Party leader Davit Usupashvili said Murman Dumbadze was beaten during the detention and after delivery at the Tbilisi police department. Usupashvili said the physical assault of Dumbadze is confirmed by the video of the EuroNews which clearly shows that Murman Dumbadze could freely walk together with two police officers on the day of dispersal.

Marekh Mgaloblishvili, lawyer: “Now he is in better condition. His wounds were already cured. He complains about his left eye and pains in the chest. When we saw him for the first time, he looked terrible. He has injuries on the head, face, eye, leg, hand and chest. He said he had received injuries at the Tbilisi Police Department. According to him, he was ruthlessly beaten by various persons several times. They were not law enforcement officers. Some more ruthlessly beaten people are placed in Telavi PDS. The situation about Dumbadze is different because others were injured only during dispersal, while Dumbadze was severely beaten after detention. At the PDS he was taken into several rooms and people beat them in each room.”

Marekh Mgaloblishvili said there are 22 prisoners in the Telavi PDS at the moment. All of them were imprisoned under Article 173 mostly for 30 days. “Court judgments against them are equal. They changed only names in the documents. Everybody told us that they were judged after 3:00 am, early in the morning,” said Marekh Mgaloblishvili.