Leader of People’s Orthodox Movement Flees to Tskhinvali

Malkhaz Gulashvili, founder of People’s Orthodox Christian Movement – the group whose several activists were arrested last week in connection to fistfight in Kavkasia TV, said he had to flee to breakaway South Ossetia citing pressure on his family.
 
Gulashvili told various Georgian media outlets over the phone from Tskhinvali on May 11, that he had to flee from Tbilisi after his teenage son was assaulted “with an attempt to rape him.”

“I directly blame Liberty Institute for that; they are responsible for everything,” Gulashvili told Rustavi 2 TV station, referring to an influential Tbilisi-based think tank.

People’s Orthodox Christian Movement demanded to ban Liberty Institute, citing that the organization was responsible for promoting, what it called, “anti-religious,” “sacrilegious” and “anti-Orthodox” ideology, including through Tbilisi-based Ilia State University. The university was a scene of several violent gatherings last week in which members and sympathizers of radical Orthodox Christian groups attacked small group of demonstrators rallying against what they called “fascism”, referring to People’s Orthodox Christian Movement.

Gulashvili also said on May 11 that the incident in Kavkasia TV last week was staged by the TV station itself. “Kavkasia TV has turned into branch of the Interior Ministry and into an attachment to the Liberty Institute,” Gulashvili, who is owner of the Georgian Times media holding, said.

He said that he would return back to Tbilisi after “I house my son… probably in Vienna and after everything calms down.”

He also said that he had been informed by his sources that the police intended to arrest him in connection to the incident in Kavkasia TV. No formal charges have been brought against Gulashvili.

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