Giorgi Tatuashvili, the former mayor of Dmanisi Municipality, was attacked on his way from Tbilisi to Dmanisi, and five shots were fired at his car. Tatuashvili says one bullet got stuck in the driver’s seat. The attack took place in Didi Dmanisi village.
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According to Tatuashvili’s account, he noticed he was being tailed, and reckons that the attackers are Georgian Dream-affiliated Zurab Okmelashvili and Koba Menabdishvili, who the ruling party uses to intimidate people during the elections.
‘‘The dash cam recorded how they roadblocked the car and got out. I did not stop. One of the bullets punctured the tire,’’ Tatuashvili told TV Formula.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs launched an investigation into the fact under Articles 236 and 187 of the Criminal Code, which stand for damage to other people's property and illegal purchase-storage-carrying of firearms.
Giorgi Tatuashvili was elected the mayor of Dmanisi municipality in 2017. Before that, he was a lawyer in the legal department of New Hospitals. In 2020, Georgian Dream expelled him from the party citing his ‘‘support for the election campaign of a rival candidate’’ as the reason. In 2021, Tatuashvili ran in the self-governance elections as a candidate from the National Movement, but the Georgian Dream candidate Koba Muradashvili beat him by 4,16%. The votes were distributed as follows: Koba Muradashvili (Georgian Dream - N41) - 52.08%; Giorgi Tatuashvili (National Movement - N5) - 47.92%.
United National Movement addresses the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia regarding the attack on Tatuashvili.
‘‘Giorgi is the one who actually won the elections in 2021, and this was an attempt to neutralize him as an example leading up to the 2024 elections. We call on the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia and non-governmental organizations working in the field of democracy and human rights in Georgia – to consider this open and shut case of political vendetta as part of the violent pre-2024-election campaign by the Russian criminal regime,’’ the statement said.
