The Prosecutor’s Office announced on May 28 the arrest of six law enforcement officers in connection with the previous day’s incident in Gori, a town in central Georgia, where two people were seen in a viral video being beaten by police.
The detainees face five to eight years in prison on charges of “exceeding official powers through violence” under Article 333 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. The Prosecutor’s Office said they “exceeded their official powers through the use of violence during the detention of the victim” and “as a result of the violence, the victim’s rights were substantially violated, and their health was also harmed.”
The investigation was launched yesterday after the media published video footage from the so-called Kombinati settlement in Gori, showing up to ten law enforcement officers approaching several people, forcibly detaining one man and kicking him repeatedly, and beating another man on the ground. The footage also captured the men screaming during the assault in apparent pain. The circumstances preceding the incident remain unclear.
The incident sparked widespread public backlash, including from opposition politicians, civil society representatives, and senior clerics. Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also commented on the footage, calling it “absolutely unacceptable” and saying state agencies “should have and will have an appropriate response.”
Later the same day, one of the beaten men, Papuna Lotsulashvili, was briefly detained. According to his lawyer, he faces allegations of “attacking a police officer,” a claim he described as “absurd.” He was later transferred overnight to Tbilisi’s Vivamedi clinic for medical examination. A doctor at the clinic told the media that Lotsulashvili had a superficial head injury, a fractured rib, a contusion and a wrist sprain.
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