Police Detain Sixteen Protesters at Rustaveli Avenue Rally
Police reported detaining 16 people during a rally on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue on September 2, as activists gathered outside parliament on a tense day marked by protest-related guilty verdicts and the reconvening of Georgian Dream’s one-party legislature for its fall plenary session.
The Interior Ministry said the protesters were arrested after refusing to comply with “repeated calls” from the police to stop blocking traffic. The detainees face charges under the Administrative Offences Code, though the exact article has not yet been specified.
Tense footage from the scene showed police officers forcibly dragging away protesters and pushing them into police vans amid noise.
The detainees, as identified by other activists, include Davit Gunashvili, Data Kashiashvili, Albi Kordzaia, Shushana Matsaberidze, Beka Papashvili, Nene Gablaia, Dani Maghradze, Tata Peradze, Lasha Dgebuadze, Tika Pataraia, Tatia Apriamashvili, Luka Chokhonelidze, Ani Chincharauli, and Anuki Chrdileli, among others.
Protesters rallied near the Parliament building as Georgian Dream veteran Tea Tsulukiani presented a voluminous report compiled by the GD’s investigative commission on alleged crimes of former officials, including during the United National Movement rule. The findings, expected to be used in a constitutional appeal seeking to ban opposition parties, include controversial claims like blaming Mikheil Saakashvili’s government for starting the 2008 Russo-Georgian war.
The protest also followed two controversial verdicts earlier in the day.
The Tbilisi City Court sentenced eight demonstrators detained during late 2024’s rallies to between two and two and a half years in prison on charges of organizing and participating in a group activity “disrupting public order.” In a separate case, the court sentenced a Russian activist, Anton Chechin, arrested during December’s pro-EU protests, to eight and a half years on serious drug-related charges believed to be politically motivated.
Also Read:
This post is also available in: ქართული