A Russia-like crackdown has jailed dozens in Georgia, with human rights teams sounding the alarm | EUROtoday

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Jailed journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli will get weaker every single day as her starvation strike has reached three weeks in Rustavi, a city close to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, her lawyer says.

Now the 49-year-old is having issue strolling the brief distance from her cell to the room the place they normally meet, and human rights officers, colleagues and household concern for her life.

Amaghlobeli was arrested Jan. 12 throughout an anti-government protest within the coastal metropolis of Batumi, considered one of over 40 folks in custody on legal prices from a collection of demonstrations which have hit the South Caucasus nation of three.7 million in current months.

The political turmoil follows a parliamentary election that was received by the ruling Georgian Dream social gathering, though its opponents allege the vote was rigged.

Its consequence pushed Georgia additional into Russia’s orbit of affect. Georgia aspired to affix the European Union, however the social gathering suspended accession talks with the bloc after the election.

As it sought to cement its grip on energy, Georgian Dream has cracked down on freedom of meeting and expression in what the opposition says is just like President Vladimir Putin’s actions in neighboring Russia, its former imperial ruler.

Accusations of fomenting revolution

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze defended the actions of his authorities, accusing the protesters of looking for “to inflict harm on the state” and trying to stage a revolution akin to the uprising in Ukraine in 2014 that ousted a pro-Kremlin leader.

Georgian Dream last year adopted a series of laws similar to ones in Russia imposing restrictions on rights groups and media outlets and severely curtailing LGBTQ+ rights. Those laws, condemned by the EU, also drew protests.

Amaghlobeli, founder of two prominent independent media outlets in Georgia, faces charges of assaulting a police officer, with a possible prison sentence of up to seven years.

Many of those detained by police have reported being abused physically and verbally by police or while in detention. International human rights groups are sounding the alarm.

“All of that paints a picture of an aggressive campaign to halt these demonstrations of which the large majority are reported to have been peaceful,” Alice Jill Edwards, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, told The Associated Press.

Allegations of abuse in custody

A video released by the media showed Amaghlobeli slapping Batumi’s police chief in the protest. Witnesses and her lawyers say police physically and verbally abused her beforehand, and the slap was her reaction to it.

The abuse continued while in custody, when the police chief “spat in Mzia’s face and denied her access to drinking water or using the toilet,” her lawyer, Juba Sikharulidze, told AP.

Authorities were investigating the accusations, the lawyer said. The Interior Ministry has not responded to an AP request for comment.

Kobakhidze has said authorities would investigate any excessive use of force, but in Amaghlobeli’s case, her actions came “in front of cameras.”

“This crime is absolutely clear,” the prime minister said.

Amaghlobeli, who founded the independent media sites Batumelebi and Netgazeti, began a hunger strike in protest, and now Georgian and Western rights advocates say her life is in danger.

Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that Amaghlobeli’s situation “requires urgent action.”

“This is not just a matter of freedom and imprisonment – this is a matter of life and death. And I very much hope that the authorities will act with the necessary speed in this extremely difficult situation,” O’Flaherty was quoted by the outlet as saying.

Amaghlobeli’s arrest has had a chilling effect on other journalists, said Nestan Tsetskhladze, editor of Netgazeti.

“If this is how they are treating the founder of the most prominent independent media, a director and media manager who is free from any political influences and influential groups, others can be treated the same way or even worse,” Tsetskhladze told AP.

Prominent actor sees a Kafkaesque scene

Another prominent Georgian jailed for taking part in protests is Andro Chichinadze, a theater and film actor. Chichinazde, 28, actively participated in the protests that reignited in November.

Police raided his home and arrested him Dec. 5, and he faces charges of “participating in group violence,” punishable by up to nine years in prison.

His lawyers say prosecutors have videos of Chichinadze swinging a stick and throwing a bottle, which they allege was hurled at him by police. They also say there is no evidence he hit anyone and no one has come forward as a victim of his alleged violence.

Chichinadze denied the accusations. At a pre-trial detention hearing, he compared himself to a “Kafka character who is on trial and could not figure out what is happening to him.”

His mother, Lika Guntsadze, called the case against her son “absurd, just absurd” in an interview with AP.

Plans for harsher penalties

More arrests — so far on petty “administrative” prices punishable by fines or brief stints in jail — occurred over the weekend, throughout continued demonstrations in Tbilisi. On Monday, police stated a complete of 31 folks had been detained.

According to media stories, some had been launched shortly afterward. Many reported bodily abuse by police each throughout their arrest and after being taken into police vans, in keeping with the workplace of Georgia’s Public Defender, a human rights ombudsman elected by parliament.

Georgian Dream introduced plans Monday to undertake harsher punishment for each legal and administrative offenses that protesters will be accused of, together with elevated jail time, greater fines and jail phrases.

Eka Gigauri, govt director of Transparency International Georgia, instructed AP she believed the federal government was “using the Russian and Belarusian playbook” in focusing on authorities opponents.

“There is nothing new in how they attack the civic activists,” she stated. “This was happening in Russia years ago.”

The mom of Andro Chichinadze, the actor who was arrested, echoed this sentiment, in describing the crackdown that adopted Georgia’s aspirations to affix the EU.

“We chose Europe and were taken to Russia,” Lika Guntsadze stated.

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Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ap-russia-georgia-tbilisi-vladimir-putin-b2691674.html