Giorgi Gakharia, a former prime minister of Georgia and current leader of one of the country’s main opposition groups, was hospitalised after being severely beaten late on Tuesday. Ana Buchukuri, a spokeswoman for his party, For Georgia, confirmed the incident to Reuters.
Gakharia sustained injuries to his face and head during an assault by several men at a hotel lobby in Batumi, a city on the Black Sea coast. “He was brutally beaten but survived,” Buchukuri stated.
For Georgia called the assault a “brutal, coordinated group attack” and blamed the government for the incident. “This politically motivated attack is a blatant attempt to intimidate the opposition and suppress dissenting voices,” the party said in a statement quoted by the Interpress news agency.
Georgia has been in political turmoil following an October parliamentary election, which the opposition claims was stolen by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party. GD, in power since 2012, denies any wrongdoing.
Since November, Georgians have staged nightly protests in the capital Tbilisi and other cities after the government announced it would freeze European Union accession talks until 2028. The pro-EU protests have been met with a police crackdown, with rights groups reporting hundreds of arrests and beatings. The government has defended the police’s actions.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, a rights group, commented on Gakharia’s assault, stating, “Physical retaliation and the incitement of violence against citizens by members of the ‘Georgian Dream’ party have become part of the political landscape. The ineffective response of the investigative bodies and the practical neglect of crimes committed against demonstrators, journalists, and political party representatives exacerbate the criminal situation in the country.”
A spokesman for Georgian Dream did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The attack on Gakharia, who served as Georgia’s prime minister from 2019 until 2021, follows other assaults on opposition figures and well-known journalists in recent months. Nika Gvaramia, the leader of the Coalition for Change party, was knocked to the ground and fell unconscious while being detained by police in December in Tbilisi. He was later jailed for 12 days for petty hooliganism and disobeying police.
Buchukuri mentioned that the identities of Gakharia’s attackers have not been determined, and the party has requested any hotel security footage be handed over to the police.