Police in Georgia turn increasingly brutal as mass protests over ending EU talks enter second week

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Mass protests in Georgia fueled by the governing party's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union entered a second week on Thursday, with police cracking down on the protesters with increasing force in an attempt to curb the demonstrations.

On Wednesday, an opposition leader was dragged into a police car and arrested, his party said. Several other activists have been arrested and scores of demonstrators and some journalists have been brutally beaten.

Georgian journalist Guram Rogava was doing a live broadcast from a protest when a riot policeman rushed up to him and hit him in the head on Friday. Rogava suffered fractured facial bones in the assault.

After being discharged from the hospital Monday with an immobilized neck and a bandaged head, he said he was lucky to be able to move his hands and talk.

"It was clear that they were deliberately attacking media representatives," he told The Associated Press. “The government is in such a state that, for some reason, its survival instinct dictates the need to intimidate the media."

The ruling Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the disputed Oct. 26 election, a vote widely seen as a referendum on Georgia's EU aspirations. The opposition and the pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, have accused the governing party of rigging the vote with neighboring Russia's help and have boycotted parliament sessions.

Opposition protests gained new momentum after the Georgian Dream's decision last Thursday to put the EU accession talks on hold.

Riot police have used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the rallies and beat scores of protesters, who threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the Georgian capital's central boulevard.

On Wednesday, the Coalition for Change opposition party said that police raided its offices and detained its leader, Nika Gvaramia. It shared a video showing several officers dragging Gvaramia into a car.

Activists have also been arrested in police raids on offices of several opposition parties and non-government organizations, and one of them, Aleko Elisashvili, was in hospital for injuries he suffered during the detention.

More than 300 protesters have been detained and over 100 people have been treated for injuries. One of the protesters, 22-year-old Aleksi Tirqia was placed in an induced coma after he was allegedly hit with a tear gas capsule.

The crackdown has drawn a strong condemnation from the United States and EU officials. Speaking Thursday at a ministerial conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced what he described as a brutal "repression of those calling for their country to stay on the path to closer ties with Europe."

Lazare Maghlakelidze, a 20-year-old student who joined the protests, said policemen who detained him at the protest early on Monday threatened to rape him and then hit him over the head several times.

"They started beating me up immediately as soon as they made sure that there were no cameras around," Maghlakelidze said. Despite a head injury and a broken nose, he says he’s even more determined to keep protesting.

Georgian Special Investigation Service, a government agency that investigates alleged abuse of power, said it was investigating violence against protesters and interference with the journalists' professional work. It said that more than 300 people, including journalists and protesters, have reported violations of their rights during the protests.

Tamar Oniani, a human rights lawyer, said such investigations in the past never gave visible result and no officer has faced charges of at least suspension from duty. He argued that police brutality appeared to have the authorities’ blessing.

"It was systemic, widespread violence against demonstrators, just because of the fact that they were at the demonstration and they were protesting," Oniani said.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the Georgian Dream party said the raids of the opposition groups’ offices targeted those who encouraged violence during protests in an attempt to topple his government.

"I wouldn't call this repression; it is more of a preventive measure than repression," Kobakhidze said.

President Zourabichvili refused to recognize the official election results and contested them before the Constitutional Court, which rejected her appeal earlier this week.

Zourabichvili, who plays a largely ceremonial role, has urged the country's Western partners to respond to police brutality against protesters and raids of opposition groups by putting "strong pressure on a ruling party that is driving the country over the cliff!"

"Do not be late!" she wrote on the social platform X.

The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that the country meets the bloc's recommendations, but put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June after the passage of a "foreign influence" law that was widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.

The law requires organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as "pursuing the interest of a foreign power," similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.