Georgia’s Interior Ministry says more than 100 officers have been injured by fireworks, stones and other projectiles, but the country’s human rights commissioner has accused police of brutality and torture against protesters.
In the early hours of Monday, Nico Gwaramia, who is one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change, told the BBC that the protesters had no choice but to take to the streets because the alternative was the elimination of their country, “not just being in a zone of influence of Russia, but some kind of puppet territory.”
He also accurately predicted that the Georgian authorities would soon raid his party’s headquarters.
Gvaramii’s party was not the only group targeted by the authorities. The offices of other parties in his Coalition for Change alliance were searched and a member was detained. The Alliance took second place in the disputed October 26 election.
Meanwhile, members of the other opposition parties, Strong Georgia and United National Movement, said that several of their members had been deported.
Authorities searched the home of an activist from Daitow, a large anti-government Facebook group that helps detained protesters, and then moved to the home of its co-founder, Nancy Woland. And also against activists of other movements.
