Georgians risk serious injury and jail in fresh pro-EU protests

More than 300 people have been arrested and a growing number of accounts have emerged of alleged violent attacks by police since mass protests broke out in Georgia six nights ago.

One man told the BBC how he was repeatedly kicked in the head even after losing consciousness. “When I opened my eyes for the third time I couldn’t feel my legs or arms – I couldn’t even move my head,” said 28-year-old businessman Avandil Kuchava.

Protests have continued every night since last Thursday, after the ruling party Georgian Dream said it was halting the country’s bid to begin talks to join the EU.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has accused opposition politicians of orchestrating the violence, blaming them for the injuries.

However, the police force has been described by Georgia’s human rights ombudsman as torture and brutality, and has been condemned by UN rights chief Volker Turk, who said the “unnecessary or disproportionate use of force… is of grave concern”. .

“Don’t blame others,” the US Embassy in Tbilisi warned in a pointed message on social media directed at Kobakhidze’s Georgian Dream government.

It reminded Georgians that it was the ruling party that stalled the EU process and lost its strategic partnership with the US two days later.

Georgian Dream has been in power for 12 years and has introduced more authoritarian laws on civil society, freedom of speech and LGBT.

For six nights, tens of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets, accusing the government of trying to destroy their path to a European future and take them back into Russia’s sphere of influence.

Riot police in body armor then tried to push them back with tear gas and water cannon.

Videos of protesters defying the police have gone viral.

One woman waved a Georgian flag as she braved a stream of water cannon, while another walked headlong into a barricade of police standing behind riot shields.

“You trash people! I’m tired, what do you want? Are you afraid of me?” The young woman screams in protest before being dragged away from the barricade.

The woman has since been identified as Nana Tomaradze and a judge fined her the equivalent of £720 (€870).

Two months’ salary in Georgian means: “She has an 11-year-old son.”

In another video an elderly woman scolds a line of helmeted riot police for pitting Georgian against Georgian and defending politicians in their palaces.

But the harshness of the police response has drawn comparisons with authoritarian states, notably Russia and Belarus, and critics of the government say they are operating from the Russian playbook.

Other videos that have gone viral here are much worse.

A middle-aged man in an orange jacket is punched and pushed to the ground as he tries to make his way through a large group of stationary riot police.

A young man lying prostrate on the ground was kicked several times on the head and a young woman pleaded him to stop.

Avtandil Kuchava endured a similar ordeal by police in unmarked black clothing and is now recovering at home after two days in hospital.

“Initially there were four people, but I didn’t know how many people were hitting me after I passed out, when I opened my eyes someone’s foot was coming towards my face and I blacked out for the second time.

“After I opened my eyes for the third time, someone broke my collarbone with his hand, then I blacked out, and the next time I turned around I was taken by car to the police station.”

The BBC has contacted Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs for comment but has not yet received a response. The ministry said 113 law enforcement officers have been injured and police have been attacked with firecrackers and other objects since the protests began.

Avtandil Kuchava says a formal investigation into his case has begun, but he has little hope of any outcome, even though there are plenty of CCTV cameras in front of the Georgian parliament, where it happened.

Georgian lawyers say police continue to torture protesters despite the attack early Saturday morning.

The Legal Aid Network says most of those held on Monday were “brutally beaten”. As most of the injuries were to the “face, eye and head area”, police may have used violent methods as a means of punishment, said public ombudsman Levan Iosseliani.

A man in his 20s was hit in the eye by a tear gas canister on Tuesday and taken to hospital where he was placed in a coma.

Georgia’s prime minister acknowledged that there was violence “on both sides,” but he singled out opposition parties and non-governmental organizations for inciting the protests and blamed members of “violent gangs” for the unrest.

Protesters returned to the main avenue outside parliament on Tuesday night, demanding a re-run of contested elections, which monitoring groups say have been marred by a string of violations.

Nicholas, 30, was undeterred by the risk of arrest or injury: “Cases like that cause more anger. It’s impossible for us to back down now.”

Hopes to convince the Constitutional Court to annul the Oct. 26 parliamentary election failed on Tuesday when Georgia’s pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili and the four main opposition groups she backed rejected a lawsuit.

Meanwhile, further arrests were reported outside Parliament during the sixth night of protests.

Outside a detention center on the outskirts of Tbilisi where many of the detained protesters are being held, a group of activists held up posters of badly bruised protesters, one of whom shouted “Freedom for the detainees” through a megaphone.

“We want the international community to understand that this is not only a struggle of the Georgian people, but a struggle between Russia and Western values,” said Mari Kapadnadze, one of the activists.