TBILISI, May 28 – Georgian prosecutors have opened an investigation after video spread online showing a group of police officers physically assaulting two men in Gori, a city in central Georgia.
The incident happened Wednesday in the so-called Kombinati settlement. Footage published by local outlet Kartlis Ambebi shows several law enforcement officers using physical force against the detained men, according to Interpressnews.
Local media reported that Sergi Bzishvili, head of the Shida Kartli Police Department, was also at the scene. There were also reports that one of the detained men had a cold weapon, but details of the incident were initially unclear.
The Prosecutor’s Office said it had launched an investigation into suspected abuse of power by police officers using violence and that the public would be informed of the results “as soon as possible.”
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said he had seen the footage and called it unacceptable.
“I saw these frames, they are absolutely unacceptable frames,” Kobakhidze said. He added that the relevant state agencies “should have and will have” an appropriate response.
One of the men involved, Lasha Abisonashvili, told Kartlis Ambebi that the clash began after a police car drove aggressively toward his friend, who was on a break from work. Abisonashvili said he tried to help his friend and was also beaten.
“My friend and I were beaten badly,” he said. He denied reports that either of them had a cold weapon.
The second man, Papuna Lotsulashvili, was later detained for resisting police, according to his lawyer, Lasha Tkesheladze. Later the same evening, the lawyer said Lotsulashvili had been released and taken for examination. In the early hours of Thursday, Tkesheladze said his client had been transferred to Vivamedi clinic in Tbilisi with multiple injuries to his face and body, and possible concussion.
The lawyer called the case “cynical and unheard of,” arguing that the alleged victim had been treated as a suspect. He demanded that the case against Lotsulashvili be dropped and that the investigation into police conduct be reclassified as torture.
Georgia’s Public Defender, Levan Ioseliani, called the footage “alarming” and urged prosecutors to carry out an objective and effective investigation. His office said it would monitor the case within its mandate.
Human rights lawyer Londa Toloraia wrote that the Ministry of Internal Affairs should want to remove such officers from the system and punish them as an example. Tamar Oniani, chair of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, said the footage showed what happens when justice for police violence is only “facade.”
