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Patrol Police Officer Physically Assaulted Journalist

August 29, 2011

Patrol police officer physically assaulted journalist of the news agency tspress.ge. The incident occurred in the afternoon of August 26 in the yard of Poti hospital. Journalist Iza Salakaia was covering the detention of Genadi Berishvili, who had fainted in the market because of being fined and then was brought to hospital by ambulance. The patrol police officers accused of having insulted the law enforcement officers but the citizen denied the accusation.

Patrol police officers, who did not introduce themselves to the journalist, banned her to enter the hospital building without explaining the reason. The head of Poti patrol police department Zurab Kukava suggested the tspress.ge to call the ministry regarding the issue.

Later, the journalist was allowed into the hospital building based on the permission from the chief doctor of the hospital.

When transporting the detainee from hospital to the police station, a police officer, who was particularly aggressive, initially touched the journalist in the shoulders and then grabbed her by arms in order to restrict her movement and not to allow her to video-record how the detainee was forcibly pushed into the patrol police car.
 
The police officer was demanding the journalist to switch off the camera and assaulted her again: the patrol police officer grabbed Iza Salakaia in the neck, shook her and pushed the camera away; consequently, the voice of the camera turned off and changed the recording regime.

As a result, the journalist could not record detention of the citizen through violation.

In parallel to harassment of the journalist, the detainee was forcibly pushed into the car and police officer slapped his wife. The police officer did not have any identification sign so the tspress.ge tried to find out his name at the police station but in vain.

The editorial board of the tspress.ge intends to sue the police officers at the court for having interfered in their professional activities.

Tspress.ge

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