The Tbilisi City Court has sentenced 44-year-old Anatoli Gigauri, who was arrested on charges of assaulting a patrol inspector during a protest, to pretrial detention as a preventive measure. During the hearing, the defendant claimed that he himself had been a victim of police violence.
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On November 24, a march was held in Tbilisi from Republic Square to Rustaveli Avenue, during which participants protested against the rigged elections.
“We were driving along Rustaveli Avenue when about five police officers stepped out and blocked our way. One of them was short, so the driver couldn’t see him from the car, which could have caused an accident. I approached him and told him not to let the car pass me. I grabbed a girl’s hand - she didn’t resist - and we pulled her aside so the car could pass behind me. At that moment, a fist hit me in the face. As soon as I got hit, I shook the hand of the policeman who punched me and asked him why he did it. At that moment, my mother scolded me and raised her hand to hit me again. I got out of the situation by shaking her hand off to get away,” said Anatoli Gigauri.
According to him, patrol police officers arrested him after he left the rally and physically assaulted him during the arrest. He stated that he did not resist.
“They took me behind the car, saying, ‘Who did you hit?’ I was hit in the head multiple times. They knocked me down and beat me for a while. Then they lifted me up. I was already bleeding, and they took pictures of me. They put me in the car and drove me to the Saburtalo police station. On the way, they tried to stop the bleeding. They stopped the car, went into a pharmacy, bought some supplies, and wiped the blood off me around the Vashlijvari turn. On the way, they called to the person sitting next to me, asking, ‘Have you stopped the bleeding?’
Then they took me to the patrol building. They forced me to take off my clothes and put on the ones they brought, which I refused to do. The person who hit me and whom I had tried to fend off approached me. He told me to put on the clothes. When I refused, he grabbed me and hit me on the head ten times while I was handcuffed,” Gigauri recounted.
The defense requested that Anatoli Gigauri be released on bail of 10 000 GEL, but Judge Lela Maridashvili denied the motion. Lawyer Lasha Tsutskiridze argued that the defendant acted in necessary self-defense.
“His actions were motivated by self-defense after the police officer assaulted him. The criminal case relies solely on the testimony of police officers, which does not reflect the objective truth about the officer’s actions. The footage presented by a specific TV company is edited and does not show the full picture,” Tsutskiridze stated.
Prosecutor Tamar Iakobidze noted that the Special Investigation Service is investigating the alleged police violence against the accused.
Anatoli Gigauri was arrested on November 25. The prosecutor's office charged him under Part 1 of Article 353 of the Criminal Code, which pertains to assaulting a police officer in the course of their official duties. The crime carries a sentence of 4 to 7 years in prison.
Similarly, 21-year-old Mate Devidze has been charged under the same article. He was arrested on November 19 during the dispersal of a rally on Melikishvili Avenue and is also in pretrial detention.
