Another participant in the pro-Western protests, 33-year-old Saba Kevkhishvili, was severely beaten after his detention. He was arrested on Rustaveli Avenue on December 1 after showing riot police officers footage of the crackdown on demonstrators.
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Saba Kevkhishvili’s interests are being protected by the Social Justice Center. According to the organization, as a result of the brutal physical assault carried out by masked riot police, he suffered a fractured nose, jawbone, and eye socket, as well as a concussion. During his arrest, his mobile phone and personal belongings were confiscated.
“The arrest of Saba Kevkhishvili by riot police and the physical violence against him were preceded by the use of special means, including a large amount of tear gas, to disperse the peaceful demonstration. To demonstrate the peaceful nature of the protest, Kevkhishvili separated from the other demonstrators and walked along Rustaveli toward the riot police officers with the flags of Georgia and the European Union.
Live television footage shows Saba Kevkhishvili being spoken to by one of the riot police officers, who asked what he was protesting about. Saba then showed him a video on his mobile phone of another protester, Zviad Maisashvili, being brutally beaten, and told him that they could not agree on violence. After this exchange, a riot police officer, presumably the leader of the group, decided to detain Kevkhishvili.
According to Saba, after the arrest, he was placed in a minibus parked near Kashveti, where several riot police officers mercilessly beat him, alternating strikes to his face, head, and entire body. Along with the physical violence, the detainee was threatened, cursed, and asked if he would participate in the rally again,” the Social Justice Center stated.
Lawyer Mariam Pataridze told Georgian News that no case has been initiated against Saba Kevkhishvili yet. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is likely to charge him with disobeying the police. The lawyer suggests that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is waiting for Kevkhishvili’s injuries to subside and is delaying the preparation of the offense report so he will appear in court in a less serious condition.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has detained more than 400 people over the past ten days as part of the ongoing protest rallies since November 28, with 372 of them detained under administrative rules.
