Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

Witness of the incident in Tianeti district police station, manager of the Georgian Dream’s Tianeti office Rusudan Sisauri said the police officers arbitrarily detained Gela Mtivlishvili.

“On May 15 a family of eight members lost social benefit because of their meeting with the Georgian Dream’s leaders. I informed Gela Mtivlishvili about the fact and he arrived in Tianeti to prepare a news story about it. He video-interviewed the person and we returned back [to Tianeti]. Gela Mtivlishvili wanted to take photos of the police station in Tianeti center; he was standing 100 meters away from the building. A person in plain clothes approached him and prohibited to take photos [of the police station]. Gela got into the car. The stranger demanded him to show driving license. In reply to it, Gela also demanded him to show the documents. The stranger tried to seize the camera from him. Gela showed him documents – ID card and driving license. Soon other police officers also arrived and demanded technical passport of the car from the journalist. Gela showed them the requested document. Afterwards, they forcibly dragged him out of the car and took to the police station. Gela shouted at me to take care of the car to prevent others to plant anything in it. I started calling everybody who could assist Gela. He spent about 1 hour in the office. Having left the station, Gela felt very bad. He had nervous breakdown. I cannot express in words how insulted and disparate he felt. Gela said he was physically assaulted in the police station. He reached the car but could not drive it. He felt very bad,” Rusudan Sisauri told the ICMM.

On May 20, Gela Mtivlishvili was detained when he was taking photos of the Tianeti police station. Police officers took the journalist into the police station, physically assaulted him and seized camera.

ICMM