At late night on December 8, approximately 3:00 AM, strangers smashed the windows of the shop owned by Oleg Samdroshvili, the head of the Election Staff for presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze.
Oleg Sandroshvili’s neighbors informed the owner about the incident on the phone. “The windows behind bars were smashed by large stones. The stones are inside the shop and the walls were damaged from the stones as well. It was not a surprise for me because a day before they broke some of our shop-windows too.”
Residents of the Aspindza Street # 38 confirm Oleg Sandroshvili’s statement about the previous incident.
Oleg Sandroshvili’s shop has been closed for more than one month already. There are only several empty counters in it.
“When a perpetrator breaks into a shop, he should expect something valuable to take from there,” asked Oleg Sandroshvili.
The head of the election staff connects the incident with political oppression. “It is not committed by hooligans from the surrounding area. It is a well-organized crime to threaten me and my supporters. Before the incident I was warned and threatened. My relatives, friends are called and threatened too...”
According to Sandroshvili he and his close people have been abused since November 2 when protest demonstration started. “I took a large colony of people to the demonstration. Certain people did not like it; they could not imagine that so many people would ever go to the demonstration from Akhaltsikhe. They started protesters one the same day. Most of them could not contact with me after we returned to the town. I could not get in touch with some of them at all. They told me that they were threatened and could not support me any longer. Of course I cannot tell you their names.”
Sandroshvili thinks that the person who smashed the windows tried to threaten my supporters and wanted to show that they can damage ordinary activists easier than they dared to do with the head of the election staff. “It is a simple hooliganism and everybody knows that I will not be scared by throwing a stone at my shop.”
Shalva Dalalishvili, deputy governor of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality, considers that the incident is a crime against current government.
“It does not make any difference who is the owner of the shop; in any case it is hooliganism. All similar facts damage the government. In similar situation the government loses its supporters during pre-election campaign. We call on everybody who supports our government to cancel similar intentions. The government can win the elections without similar illegal activities,” said Dalalishvili.
The Akhaltsikhe District police department investigates the incident. The officials from the department refused to make comments on the fact.
Gulo Kokhodze, Akhaltsikhe
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