The leader of one of Georgia’s four main opposition parties has been detained by police in the capital Tbilisi after being knocked to the ground and falling unconscious, his party said on Wednesday.
The opposition Coalition for Change party published a video on X showing Nika Gvaramia, the party's leader, being carried by the arms and legs by several men down some steps.
The party said that Gvaramia, a 48-year-old lawyer and media manager-turned politician, had been “thrown into a detention car as he was physically assaulted and unconscious”.
The police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, and there was no immediate response to the assertion by the authorities, who have faced six nights of protests against a government decision to suspend talks on the country joining the European Union.
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It could not be discerned whether Gvaramia had been beaten or not, but he did not appear to be moving as he was carried down the steps in the video released by his party.
Asked at a press conference about claims authorities were repressing the opposition, prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze said: “I would not call it repression, it is more prevention”.
He said that opposition forces had been supplying protesters with fireworks that were hurled at police.
“People were systematically supplied with pyrotechnics and other means by the relevant political forces,” Mr Kobakhidze said.
The government’s decision to suspend EU talks has plunged the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people into political crisis and the authorities claim to have thwarted an attempted revolution.
Critics accuse the government of turning its back on the West and steering an increasingly authoritarian and pro-Russian course, which the ruling party denies.
Salome Zourabichvili, the country's pro-EU president who has become a voice of the protest movement, wrote on X on Wednesday:
“My urgent call to our partners and those who want to prevent [the] crisis to go deeper . . . it is time to put strong pressure on a ruling party that is driving the country over the cliff! Do not be late . . . !”
A spokeswoman for Coalition for Change said on X that several other party members had been detained alongside Mr Gvaramia.
A spokesperson for the United National Movement, another opposition party, said police had also raided its Tbilisi offices on Wednesday and arrested five of its members.
The Interpress news agency said two members of another opposition party, Strong Georgia, had been detained by the police and Georgian media reported that a leader of Georgian youth protest movement Dafioni was also arrested.
But prime minister Mr Kobakhidze has repeatedly praised the police for their response to the protests.
Georgia’s public ombudsman, a former opposition politician, accused the police on Tuesday of harshly mistreating people detained during demonstrations, saying their treatment amounted to torture. – Reuters
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