PM Bakhtadze: no questions must remain unanswered about June 20 rally dispersal
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze said that “everyone who violated the law” on June 20 will be held accountable, no matter who they are. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze says that no question marks must remain regarding the June 20 rally dispersal in Tbilisi, which came after groups of demonstrators tried to storm the parliament building.
We must give a legal assessment of the incidents where possible abuses of power took place,” Bakhtadze said.
He stated that there are no question marks whether the use of force was legitimate.
It was legitimate, and our foreign partners share this attitude. Police had to use force. Unfortunately, the dispersal left some injured and if several law enforcers used excessive force, the investigation will reveal this,” Bakhtadze stated.
People on Rustaveli Avenue, a day after the rally dispersal. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
He said that “no one who violated the law” during the rally, including the opposition members “who used the justified protest of the youth for their political interests,” will be left unpunished.
Bakhtadze said that the investigation of the June 20 events is going on “very transparently,” with the involvement of Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria.
He said that the “attempts of the United National Movement to display the attack on parliament as patriotism is cruelty and anti-state.”
Rallies in Tbilisi were sparked after Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov addressed the audience from the seat of the Georgian parliamentary speaker on June 20, during the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy forum held in Tbilisi.
People took to the streets as they were irritated to see the MP, from the occupant country, at the high tribune of parliament.
Members of the ruling party said that the protest was justified, which was later used by the United National Movement opposition to cause unrest.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze quit the post shortly after the incident in parliament and the Georgian Dream ruling party accepted the proportional voting system for 2020 elections.
The human rights defender Sopho Verdzeuli said the Tbilisi protest of June 20 in front of the parliament of Georgia “became violent” after around 10 p.m. “Quite a lot of demonstrators were physically attacking police officers from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m., grabbing their equipment, pulling police officers out of the cordon”, Verdzeuli wrote on her Facebook page.
The Georgian Dream ruling party has announced that they are ready to conduct the 2020 parliamentary elections on the proportional electoral system only, which has been one of the top demands of demonstrators gathered in Tbilisi since June 20.
Human Rights Watch has reacted to the June 20 demonstration in Tbilisi, triggered by the presence of Russian MPs in Georgia, and urged the Georgian government to investigate the use of force during the rally which left 240 injured.
The Georgian Patriarchate said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent explanation of how Georgia “engulfed” the currently Russian-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions “has caused a negative reaction among our people”. "Such distortion of historic facts continues to deepen the existing conflicts”, the Patriarchate said.