Georgian police arrest UNM members of Tbilisi City Council

Georgian Police have arrested two members of the Tbilisi City Council from the opposition United National Movement. While one has since been released, the other remains in pre-trial detention and has accused the police of physical abuse.

The two have been charged with disorderly conduct and disobeying police, and face fines or up to 15 days administrative arrest.

UNM member Irakli Edzgveradze, who remains in custody, was arrested near his home in Tbilisi on Wednesday evening. 

Footage of the arrest was circulated in the media, showing a confrontation between the people gathered at the scene and law enforcement officers.

According to police, Edzgveradze was arrested after intervening in an unrelated drug investigation in his neighbourhood.

The second detainee, Irakli Nadiradze, told journalists on Thursday that he was arrested after hearing of his colleague’s detention and travelling to his home to ask why he was taken into custody. 

‘They detained me without any explanation. First they told me that I was not arrested, they were waiting for instructions, and then they took me to a specific building and let us out with a handwritten note’, Nadiradze said.

‘We will probably have a trial and they will probably put us in jail for two weeks or fine us, as Georgian Dream is used to doing’, he added.

Nadiradze said the purpose of the detentions serve is to interfere with the election campaign. 

‘We want to talk about people’s problems, people’s hardships. We meet people, and they [Georgian Dream] don’t like that we talk about these people’s problems’.

In a statement on Wednesday, the UNM accused police officers of using ‘physical force’  against supporters of Edzgveradze and Nadiradze.

Edzgveradze’s lawyer, Lasha Tkesheladze, accused the police of abusing his client in custody.

‘[Edzgveradze] seems to have bruises on his body. He also appears to have bruises around his neck. Irakli says that he was abused in a garage’, he said.

Tkesheladze called on the Special Investigation Service and the public defender to investigate the case.

Several opposition leaders linked the arrests to a statement by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Wednesday that the ‘radical opposition’ might be ‘at risk’ of attacks orchestrated by their own members.

[Read more: Georgian Prime Minister warns that opposition might be ‘at risk of attack’ by themselves]

Read in Armenian on CivilNet.