Protesters detained after egg assault on court building

10 people were arrested during a protest rally against the Supreme Court organized by the Resistance Movement and various other oppositional parties, on April 4.

The Movement is focused on inmates' rights protection, demanding a large-scale amnesty and improvement of imprisoned people’s living conditions. A couple of hundred protesters marched towards the Supreme Court, on April 4. The incident between the protesters and the Patrol Police was sparked when the protestors started throwing eggs at the Court building. Finally, ten people were arrested, among them a member of the Tbilisi-based Abkhaz parliament in-exile Ada Marshania. In an overnight hearing, the Tbilisi City Court found them guilty of disobedience to police orders and petty hooliganism and sentenced three of them to 20 days in jail; one was sentenced to 25 days in jail and six others, including Marshania, were fined GEL 400 each and released from the courtroom.

After the incident the Resistance Movement spread a special statement, “we will go on street rallies and more and more people will get involved in the process. Raiding the peaceful manifestation is a provocation from the authority’s side. We will not concede.”

Both Parliamentary and non parliamentary opposition condemned the incident and demanded the release of the imprisoned protesters, “all this proves that the authorities are especially irritated by those manifestations which aim to protect prisoners' rights and carry out repression against them, “Georgian Party states. A similar attitude was expressed by the Leader of Our Georgia-Free Democrats, Irakli Alasania, “the current Government is afraid of any kinds of street rallies and peaceful manifestations. This is the sign that the government is already getting frightened. Statement has also been made by Democratic Movement-United Georgia, “By repressions against the protesters the current Government wants to lengthen its governance term, however, they will very soon answer for all their illegalities.”

“Of course, throwing of eggs is not the best example of expressing protest, however the justice we have in Georgia and the palace of justice are really worthy of such actions, “MP, Dimitri Lortkipanidze, said.

As for the authority’s attitude regarding the issue, “the right of expressing viewpoints does not foresee the throwing of eggs at buildings and no one can behave like this in any country. In such cases, people in European countries would be fined a higher sum, than those protesters in Georgia after the incident, “MP, Akaki Minashvili, said.