Amnesty International Calls on Georgian Authorities to End Cycle of Violence

“Following dozens of similar violent incidents, the attack on Zuka Berdzenishvili, just hours after he was personally called out by the Speaker of the Parliament as a threat to the government, raises serious concerns. Such actions by government officials can easily be interpreted as a green light to commit violence against government critics with impunity.

We are deeply troubled by the Georgian government’s false pretence that the criticism they face is a violent anti-establishment plot. Their mounting crackdown on dissent is not a form of defence, it is an assault on human rights and a breach of Georgia’s international human rights obligations. Criticism of the authorities, however harsh, is protected speech, and all public officials have an obligation to endure high levels of criticism and scrutiny.

The Georgian authorities must put an end to the cycle of violence, immediately investigate all violent attacks and ensure that the perpetrators, whoever they are, are brought to justice in fair trial proceedings,” said Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Zuka Berdzenishvili was attacked by three people on June 11 near his home in Tbilisi. The activist was beaten in the face, requiring surgical operation. One hour before the attack, the Parliament Speaker, Shalva Papuashvili, published a post on social media where he labeled Zuka Berdzenishvili as one of the "outraged citizens" participating in an "organized and politically motivated terror campaign" against members of the ruling party. According to Papuashvili, Berdzenishvili is the Shame Movement member and had made threatening and insulting calls to deputies. "Donors who reject the political extremism of the organizations funded by them are normalizing terror," Papuashvili wrote. Zuka Berdzenishvili does not deny calling deputies who support the Russian law. As he says, he has not been a Shame Movement member for two years and has never received money for his activism.

On June 7, activist Niko Managadze, the founder of the student movement For Freedom, was attacked near the first building of Tbilisi State University. On June 2, Tsotne Koberidze, an opposition member of the Tbilisi City Council, was threatened and warned of a beating at a bus stop. Additionally, the police arrested Gore activist Ioseb Babayev, a participant in anti-Russian actions. The prosecutor's office intended to charge him with the illegal purchase, storage, and carrying of weapons, punishable by up to 2 years of imprisonment. However, Judge Levan Darbaidze deemed all investigative actions illegal and considered the weapon supposedly removed from Babayev's car as inadmissible evidence. The activist claims that the gun was planted on him.