The regime is trying to intimidate society – human rights defenders

On the seventh day after the crackdown on large-scale pro-European rallies in Tbilisi, the Ministry of Internal Affairs began searching opposition parties and civil society activists. Citizens are evaluating these processes as the beginning of repression, while Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze says that “this is more prevention than repression.”

It all started on December 3 with the search of digital marketing specialist and activist Dodi Kharkheli. Kharkheli was stopped by police near a kindergarten after he left his young child there.

“At the same time, another crew tried to break down the door of the house of 15-year-old William, who was alone,” the activist says. After the search, police seized electronic devices and memory cards from the activist’s home. According to reports, the investigation is related to a case opened months ago against the activist’s ex-husband, military blogger Ucha Abashidze.

Kharkheli says that she is cooperating with the investigation in the case and that her surprise search was only similar to the “Russian terror”, which she links to her own activities around the protest.

The Dodi Kharkheli incident was the beginning of the processes that continued on December 4.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs searched the offices of Girchi-Droa and the “Akhali” party in parallel. Police officers forcibly detained the leader of the “Coalition for Changes” Nika Gvaramia.

“At the time of his arrest, he was physically assaulted. In particular, he was hit in the stomach and during one of the blows, due to shortness of breath, he passed out for several seconds. Overall, his health condition is satisfactory. He was arrested for petty hooliganism and failure to comply with the police officer’s request,” the lawyer says.

Nika Gvaramia was detained by the police at the office of the youth wing of the United National Movement. It was from this office that the MIA arrested 5 members on December 4. As a result of the search, the police seized saline, helmets, and raincoats. Members of the organization claim that the MIA “planted” Molotov cocktails on them.

The Director of the Criminal Police Department, Teimuraz Kupatadze, stated that the investigative actions were carried out based on a judge’s ruling. Among them, 6 people and their homes were searched due to “urgent necessity.”

“The main source of violence was the party offices, and as soon as we entered these party offices and removed the relevant weapons of violence, the violence immediately ended. Yesterday you saw that the party groups no longer had the resources for violence. “Once the source of violence was eliminated, the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not have to react immediately,” the Georgian Prime Minister said today, December 5. He also called the Facebook group “They Left” “the largest revolutionary group,” and accused its admins of organizing the so-called National Maidan. It was the admins of this group, Nancy Woland and Ilia Glonti, who were searched by police yesterday, December 4.

The police seized a mobile phone and laptop from Ilia Glonti’s house. “The goal of this is to intimidate and take away our voice on social networks or elsewhere,” Glonti says. Pepper spray, a gas mask, and a phone were seized from the house of the group’s other admin, Nancy Woland.

“I attribute all this to the fact that people who are fighting and going to rallies do not want them to exist, they want them to be silenced and this protest wave to be killed and the country to be appropriated by Russia,” says the founder of “DaiTsvet”.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs searched the house of Saba Jajanidze, an assistant professor at Ilia State University, and also entered the house of his ex-wife’s mother by deception: “4-5 people in blue uniforms came to my mother’s house. We had to check the gas. She wouldn’t open the door. They said they would break in. My mother opened the door. They found the twins lying in the car. My mother is having a heart attack. We called an ambulance,” writes Ana Kvanchlishvili on social media.

“Ivanishvili’s Prime Minister announced repression a few days ago, and today law enforcement agencies have already been involved in implementing this task. It is clear that this violent regime is doing everything it can to undermine the interests of Georgia and the Georgian people and to intimidate Georgian citizens so that they stop resisting the Russian criminal regime,” the NGOs say.