Eight detained as Namakhvani HPP protesters, police clash in Rioni Gorge last night

Eight individuals protesting against the construction of the Namakhvani hydro power plant (HPP) in western Georgia have been detained after a clash between protesters and police in the village of Gumati last night, announces the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.

• Two detained as Namakhvani HPP protesters, police clash in Rioni gorge

The protesters, who moved from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi to Rioni gorge on May 26, were holding a demonstration at an artificial iron barrier erected in Gumati village. 

• Protesters against Namakhvani HPP project leave Tbilisi, continue demonstrations at site

Protesters pounded the wall with their hands for several hours last night to make noise. They tried to cross the iron wall and move towards the construction site, but police prevented them from doing so.

The lawyer of three detainees Dali Sulakvelidze demands that the administrative proceedings against the protesters be stopped; she said that the detainees have injuries which they received during the arrest last night. 

Sulakvelidze said that the trial is planned to be held today and 'everyone is against the process being carried out remotely'.

The detainees are very upset because they were treated in a very inhuman, degrading way by law enforcers. They suffer not from the fact that they are detained, but that such an approach was taken by the Georgian police. After the arrest, policemen asked them why they were killing themselves and were telling them that the HPP would still be built and that their protest would yield no results", Sulakvelidze said.

Demonstrators in Gumati stopped protesting in the early morning. Law enforcers still remain behind the iron wall erected on the spot.

For now, both access roads to the Namakhvani HPP remain closed. Protesters say they will not allow construction company equipment to enter the village, while locals are free to move.

Today's plan of the protesters will be announced later.