Students against torture and Saakashvili

Students demonstrated against torture of prisoners near the Tbilisi Philharmonic, Gldani Prison and Georgian Channel One. The main demand is to punish all those responsible, as well as to arrest and bring to trial the former Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia Bacho Akhalaia . The actions did not subside until late in the evening.

The Philharmonic Hall on Rustaveli Avenue (the central street of Tbilisi) has already become a traditional gathering point for students of local universities. As the protesters say, on September 18, when the TV-9 channel showed a video about torture of prisoners in Gldani prison No. 8, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili did not cancel his visit to the premiere of the musical “Melodies of the Verian Quarter” and even managed to watch the first song, after which left the Philharmonic. The show was stopped when people, outraged by what happened, blocked the entrance to the building.

Photo: Evgeniy Natelashvili /PublicPost

On Saturday, about fifty students gathered at the Philharmonic. Young people chanted “Free Georgia” and “Georgia without Akhalaia”. “We organize ourselves, without any politicians,” says one of the participants in the action, Dato. “Students have never been as active as they are now. We gather on Facebook. Our Georgia is small, everyone knows everything.” Representatives of student associations - “Iverielebi”, “Kartveli” and “Student Voice” - also participate in the action. In addition to the arrest of Akhalaia, they demand the resignation of Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili and the release of their arrested comrades (four of them in total), detained the day before. They were given forty days of arrest. Among them is a member of opposition leader Bendzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream party, Lasha Meskhia, leaflets with his photograph were distributed to students. Unfortunately, it was not possible to obtain a clear answer as to why the posters did not mention the remaining detainees.

Photo: Evgeniy Natelashvili /PublicPost

After a small rally near the Philharmonic building, the protesters staged a procession, partially blocking traffic along Rustaveli Avenue. The protesters called on passers-by to join the protest, and asked drivers to honk their horn, thus expressing their solidarity with the action. Police cars only drove around the demonstrators.

Photo: Evgeniy Natelashvili /PublicPost

After a short stop at the building of the Georgian parliament, the demonstration moved further - to the building of the Ministry of Justice, the grand opening of which took place the day before. Now students visit all the places where Mikheil Saakashvili recently spoke. They do not agree with his statements and demand attention to their protest. “Yesterday our president spoke about democracy in Georgia! We don’t need democracy with blood!” - students spoke at the Ministry of Justice. “We were informed through a lawyer that one of the detainees started a hunger strike,” one of the activists of the Kartveli association, Georgiy, tells me, “as a sign of solidarity, I and a few other guys will stay here at the entrance and start a hunger strike. We will be here until they are released."


Photo: Evgeniy Natelashvili /PublicPost

At this time, a mass procession to Gladan prison began from the Akhmeteli metro station. Armed with brooms and posters, the students completely blocked traffic. The whistle drowned out everything around. Some passers-by joyfully greeted the demonstration, blowing them kisses, some even joined in, while others simply covered their ears and quickly walked away.

“In general, there aren’t very many of us here, this action happened spontaneously,” the march participants tell me. As a result, about a thousand protesters came to the Gldani prison, where an impromptu rally was organized. “I do not participate in political actions and do not support either Saakashvili or Ivanishvili. “I see a fact,” says Mzia, a student at Tbilisi State University. “I saw a video of torture and it shocked me. Why it was shown right now is not interesting to me. The main thing is that it exists. And I will vote against everyone, I don’t trust any party.” According to rumors, the detainees are still under pressure; Mzia says that prison guards allegedly threaten them and promise to “arrange their life here” after the elections. However, clergy visited the Gldani prison today to personally check the current situation. As they later said in an interview with local journalists, they had not received any such complaints from prisoners. The rally lasted until nine o'clock in the evening, but the most active ones said that they would not leave until midnight.

The last action to date took place near the building of the Georgian First Channel. People found out (again, through Facebook) that five more students were detained today, but this was not reported on the TV channel. “We want them to be shown on TV, so that we can see what’s wrong with them and what condition they are in now,” demanded those gathered. However, none of the channel’s representatives responded to the protesters’ requests. The students agreed to take a break and go on a mass demonstration on Monday, September 24.