Georgia’s interior ministry says more than 100 officers have been hurt by fireworks, rocks and other projectiles, but the country’s ombudsman for human rights has accused the police of exercising brutality and torture toward protesters.
In the early hours of Monday, Nika Gvaramia who is one of the leaders of Coalition for Change, told the BBC that the protesters had no other option but to take to the streets, because the alternative was the elimination of their country, “not just in Russia’s zone of influence but some kind of puppet territory”.
He also predicted that his party HQ would soon be raided by Georgia’s authorities, and that took place less than 36 hours later.
Other opposition leaders met for an hour during the evening in a hotel in Tbilisi’s central Liberty Square, and decided to step up co-operation and push for a general strike in the wider general public.
“It’s a total campaign of terror against free speech, against freedom of opinion, against democracy,” Levan Tsutskiridze of Strong Georgia told the BBC.
Another leader of Coalition for Change, Zurab Girchi Japaridze, said it was not a pleasant feeling, realising that more arrests could come: “You think you’re prepared for this but you never are.”
As they left the meeting, some leaders came under attack in Liberty Square and two were seen being detained by waiting police, including opposition figure and world champion wrestler Zurabi Datunashvili.
In all, the opposition said 11 members had been arrested, including a Strong Georgia leader Aleko Elisashvili and two colleagues. The United National Movement said five members from its youth office had been taken away too.
Authorities also raided the home of an activist from Daitove, a large anti-government Facebook group that helps detained protesters, and then moved to the home of its co-founder Nancy Woland. They also targeted activists from other movements.
