Day: June 8, 2024
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NPR News: 06-08-2024 4PM EDT
A student activist was beaten in Tbilisi
On June 7, Niko Managadze, a student and activist of the “Freedom” movement, was beaten near the main building of Tbilisi State University after leaving a lecture. A video recording shows the attackers.
Niko Managadze is one of the organizers of the student protest “Meet Prime Minister Kobakhidze.” Irakli Kobakhidze gives lectures on constitutional law at Tbilisi State University on Saturdays. Students greet him in large groups with flags and posters demanding the repeal of the “foreign agents” law and a return to the path of European integration.
After widespread attacks and harassment of activists, students have also begun demanding a public investigation into these incidents.
Recently, the Prime Minister of Georgia has been arriving for his lectures accompanied by police and entering through a side service entrance instead of the main entrance.
“I left the courtyard of the main building of Tbilisi State University and was heading to the bus stop when I was hit from behind. I turned around and hit back. His bag fell, I grabbed it and tried to use it to defend myself.
Then a second, a third person joined him; I was surrounded. I don’t even remember how many there were. I saw at least three, maybe four. I don’t even remember their faces,” Niko Managadze said.
“This is repression” – Protesters against Georgia’s “foreign agents” law summoned by police for questioning
The Interior Ministry charges activists with criminal articles that carry huge prison sentences
Recent incidents of attacks on activists
● On May 1, at a rally, Levan Khabeishvili, leader of the “National Movement,” was arrested and brutally beaten by special forces.
● On May 5, in Lanchkhuti (Western Georgia), unknown assailants attacked Lado Apkhazava, a teacher and national award laureate, in the stairwell of his own home. He actively participates in protests against the “foreign agents” law and was with his son during the attack.
● On May 7, an unknown person attacked Giorgi Kldiashvili, executive director of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), and a film crew from the “Formula” TV channel. The attack occurred in broad daylight in central Tbilisi, in front of the Swedish Embassy.
● On the night of May 8, at least three active opponents of the “foreign agents” law were attacked and beaten by unknown groups in Tbilisi. One of them, Dimitri Chikovani, a member of the secretariat of the opposition “National Movement” party, was attacked in the stairwell of his apartment building in Sololaki, central Tbilisi.
● On May 8, Gia Japaridze, an international relations specialist and active opponent of the “foreign agents” law, was attacked. He is the brother of Zurab Japaridze, leader of the opposition party “Girchi – More Freedom.”
● On the same night of May 8, Lasha Gvinianidze, another opponent of the “foreign agents” law, was beaten on the street. He was with a friend at the time, who managed to record part of the attack.
The de facto leader of the Russian-occupied Abkhazia, Aslan Bzhania, told the Russian media outlet Ria Novosti that the occupied region of Georgia and Moscow are working to simplify “border” control.
Bzhania, who is participating in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, also reportedly expressed hope that in the future there will be no checkpoint at all. “I expect that we will reach a point in our relations where a checkpoint will no longer be necessary. The border will remain, but the checkpoint will eventually become redundant,” Ria Novosti quotes Bzhania as saying.
“This work is being carried out, but the checkpoint on the Psou River on the Russian side is operating at the limit of its capacity during the summer months – July, August, September,” Bzhania said.
He also said that it was also decided to use the old bridge over the Psou River, which is currently under reconstruction. Bzhania believes that this will make it easier to cross the “border” between the occupied Georgian region of Abkhazia and the Russian Federation.
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Source: https://t.co/fYlt8v8N4P https://t.co/OMXc2zToZW
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