45-Day Imprisonment for Participation in Protest Demonstration

Maka Malakmadze, Adjara

After 2:00 am on May 22 riot police officers detained Temur Chanturishvili in the Batumi office of the People’s Assembly. Currently, he is serving his 45-day administrative imprisonment. Chanturishvili was allowed to contact his family only some time after detention; so, initially the relatives thought he had disappeared.

Temur Chanturishvili was an active supporter of the People’s Assembly. His wife wonders why he – who was just participating in the protest demonstration - was put in prison for 45 days. Besides, she is afraid of making critical statements in order not to aggravate the conditions of her husband. “I am afraid of aggravating his conditions with my behavior and statements. They might increase oppression on him. Now, the government believes everybody is Russian spy in this country.”

Chanturishvili is 58 and often has health problems. His wife Rusudan Mzhavanadze told the Human Rights Center that her husband has blood pressure and needs doctor’s assistance. “He shall take medicines every day. I do not know whether doctors examine him in the pretrial detention setting or not. I can send only medicines to him. I do not know how his wound was treated. His skirt had blood stains and I think a provocateur threw a stone at him in the head during the protest demonstration in front of the Adjara TV-Station.”

Chanturishvili’s wife learned about his detention and imprisonment from TV. “I was in Tbilisi and calling him on the phone. I was worried about the ongoing protest rallies because I knew the government would not stand the demonstrations for a long time; so I was waiting for some provocations.”

Rusudan Mzhavanadze said they faced problems when sending books and mineral water to her husband into the PDS. “He asked for Nodar Dumbadze’s book and I thought he was feeling better; however, they did not allow me to send the book into the PDS. Then, he asked for mineral water and the prison administration allowed us to send the bottle only once; but next time they refused. A prison officer explained they choose things to send to detainees according to their charges. I cannot understand, what is the connection between the charge and books or mineral water?! In addition, there is no list of things that shall not be sent to a prisoner.”

The Human Rights Center called the director of the Batumi PDS Suliko Beridze who got surprised with our question: “What do you want to hear from me?” When we explained to him that we needed comment about Chanturishvili, he suggested us to get in touch with the press-center and cut off line.

Nobody answered our calls at the phone number from the official website of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia.

The Human Rights Center met the representative of the Georgian Public Defender in Batumi Giorgi Charkviani who said he had just met the convicted for administrative charges and none of them complained about any particular problems.

After the dispersal of the demonstration in front of the Adjara TV-Station, seven more people were detained together with Chanturishvili; some of them were put in prison for 45 days, others for 60 days.