Opposition figure attacked in Georgia
Levan Gogichaishvili, a candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections representing the opposition party For Georgia, was attacked in the Tbilisi metro on October 23. A bystander provided a video of the incident to the news outlet Publica.
Gogichaishvili was on his way to an interview with a local TV company when about twenty unidentified men assaulted him.
The press service of For Georgia reported that Gogichaishvili is currently at a police station, where he is giving testimony.
Commenting on the incident, the party’s leader and former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia claimed that the attack was orchestrated by the ruling Georgian Dream party, of which he was once a member.
He said that “Georgian Dream would not intimidate either Gogichaishvili or the party as a whole through such actions.”
A few days earlier, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of Georgian Dream, stated in an interview that the most dangerous forces in the Georgian opposition today are the Lelo and For Georgia parties, as they facilitate the return to power of the United National Movement, which ruled the country until 2012.
According to Ivanishvili, the leaders of the National Movement were trained abroad and are “puppets” of foreign forces seeking to provoke war in Georgia.
In the same interview, Ivanishvili harshly criticized his former ally Giorgi Gakharia, calling him “wild” and openly threatening to hold members of his party accountable.