A man has been arrested in Georgia for attacking a Russian-speaking tourist. Protests in his support have begun in Tbilisi
This has been reported by Civil Georgia and the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
What does the Ministry of Internal Affairs say?
According to the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the incident took place at the Agarani Estate hotel in Telavi. Eyewitnesses reported that foreign nationals staying at the hotel had been taunting wedding guests from the balcony of their room and had poured water onto the sound equipment.
Following this, the groom’s brother — Georgian national Giorgi Chigladze — went up to the foreign women’s room, where a scuffle broke out between them, resulting in him causing physical harm to one of the women. The injured woman was taken to a clinic for medical treatment.
A language dispute or a provocation: what do the parties claim?
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published a video of the incident on Facebook. The footage shows the injured woman saying in English: ‘You’re in my room’, to which Chigladze replies: ‘You’re in my country, you bitch’.
The detainee’s lawyer, Lasha Kapanadze, rejects the accusation that the attack was language-related. He claims that it was the Russian-speaking tourists who provoked the altercation: they allegedly shouted “Gorko!” from the second floor, spat at the guests and spilled a liquid that damaged the wedding sound system.
According to the lawyer, Chigladze’s actions were in self-defence. He claims that during the conversation, the tourist became aggressive, grabbed the man by the neck and struck him in the chest with both hands. In an attempt to fend her off, the man swung his arm and struck her in the face with his elbow. To back up his claim of self-defence, the defence lawyer published a photo of Chigladze’s scratched neck and reported that the emergency services had documented these injuries.
Chigladze has now been detained. The case is being investigated under Article 120 of the Georgian Criminal Code – intentional infliction of minor bodily harm. The penalty for this offence ranges from a fine to three years’ imprisonment.
Protests in Tbilisi
A rally took place in Tbilisi following the arrest of Giorgi Chigladze — people marched from the Georgian Parliament building to the Government Office.
The demonstrators expressed their support for the detained man and chanted anti-Russian slogans, including ‘Putin is a dickhead’.
In addition, the crowd chanted: “This is Georgia, and in Georgia we won’t let anyone humiliate Georgians!”, “Down with Russia’s rotten empire!”, “Freedom for the regime’s prisoners!”.
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