Activist injured during protest in Zugdidi

In Zugdidi, the police clashed with activists who gathered near a memorial dedicated to the memory of those killed in Tbilisi on April 9, 1989. One of the protesters was taken to hospital.

On the night of April 9, in Tbilisi, participants in the daily protest paid tribute to the memory of those killed on Rustaveli Avenue, and relatives of political prisoners remained near the memorial, calling on their fellow citizens to come again during the day.

In Zugdidi, inspectors of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) pushed back the protesters, who spent the night near the memorial. The police claimed that the priests should hold a mourning service for the dead, the activists expressed their desire to attend the mourning service, but the law enforcers did not allow them to do so, the “Pirveli” TV Channel reports.

“We were peacefully standing near the ‘April 9’ Memorial ... About two hundred police inspectors arrived at the place, and they were beating us while the priests were praying! There is an activist among us who probably got a brain concussion, and he is taken to the hospital,” Mariam Sichinava, a member of the opposition “Droa” Party, wrote on Facebook*.

*On March 21, 2022, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities in Russia of the Meta Company, owning the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in connection with extremist activities.