The country’s human rights ombudsman is officially requesting the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate allegations of police violations on November 7.

Ombudsman Sozar Subari says riot police illegally used rubber bullets and targeted journalists in dispersing the November 7 anti-government protests in the capital.

“[The law] enumerates the tools that can be used in [anti-riot operations]. There are rubber batons, tear gas and water cannon, but rubber bullets are not mentioned,” reads a statement from the Ombudsman’s Office.

Subari’s statement points out that the government’s mention of European democracies using rubber bullets in riot control provides no justification, as, unlike Georgia, those countries have laws sanctioning their use.

The ombudsman stated that Ministry of Internal Affairs personnel are obliged to follow the law to the letter.

Ministry of Internal Affairs representatives did not make themselves available for comment.

“Using force can only happen in very extreme situations, and only with the methods foreseen by law,” the ombudsman’s statement says.

Using rubber bullets, it continues, violates the law against “exceeding official power.”

In the case of violently abusing one’s power, the law stipulates a prison sentence of three to eight years.

While then-president Saakashvili, speaking after the events of November 7, promised that any instances of police brutality would be prosecuted, no investigations have yet been officially opened.

In the open letter to the prosecutor general, the ombudsman also cites alleged instances of police abusing and threatening journalists.

Georgian Times journalist Nino Silagadze was covering the events at Rike, the site of the final and most forceful dispersal of protestors on November 7. She claims that as riot police advanced on the demonstrators, some aimed and shot specifically at her.

She was struck by rubber bullets in the neck and in the leg.

Imedi TV journalists Levan Javakhishvili and Sopo Mosidze, according to the ombudsman’s statement, were in their television network’s studio when the door was broken down by special forces officers. They allegedly beat and swore at a female make-up artist, and pointed guns at the journalists in the studio.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has not released any official response to the ombudsman’s statements.