Six persons arrested in Gori

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

In the evening of April 8, an incident between law enforcement officers and citizens in Gori finished with the detention of nine citizens. Three of them were freed under administrative bail; the other six were sentenced to pre-trial detention on April 11; the decision was made by the Judge Levan Darbaidze at the Gori district court. More precisely, the five detainees are charged for the violation of the Article 353 Part II of the Criminal Code of Georgia – resistance to police officer and the sixth was charged for the violation of the Article 3531 Part I of the CCG – assaulting police officer.

At the trial, prosecutor requested imprisonment as preventive measure for the detainees. The defense side offered 2 000 GEL bail instead imprisonment. The judge did not satisfy the request of the defense advocate and said there was risk that the accused persons will hide the justice.

“We requested bail instead imprisonment but the judge did not satisfy our petition; he imposed imprisonment on the detainees. It is interesting how the court will verify its decision. In case of necessity we will appeal the decision at the appeal court,” the advocate Nodar Tsintsadze said.

On April 8, in the railway station neighborhood in Gori, an incident happened between young people and criminal police officers, which turned into physical clash. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the controversy started after the patrol police called on about 20 young men in the Ketskhoveli street square to respect public order. According to the MIA, during the incident, five police officers were injured and three police cars were damaged.

The mother of one of the detainees imposed responsibility for the incident on the law enforcement officers. She said initially the police officers insulted the young boys in the square that turned into physical controversy between police officers and the citizens.