Eight detained as Namakhvani HPP protesters, police clash in Rioni Gorge last night
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. Photo: IPN.
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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.
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 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.
Two individuals have allegedly been detained as police and protesters of Namakhvani hydro power plant construction clashed in Rioni Gorge, Varlam Goletiani, the leader of Rioni Gorge Defenders’ civic movement said.
Protesters against the construction of the Namakhvani hydro power plant (HPP) in western Georgia have stopped their protest rally in the capital city of Tbilisi and say that they will continue the fight directly at the construction site of Namakhvani HPP.
Marches, street blockades and pickets to protest the construction of the Namakhvani hydro power plant (HPP) in western Georgia will resume today at 16:00, announces Varlam Goletiani, the leader of Rioni Gorge Defenders civic movement.
It has been two hours since the protesters against the construction of the Namakhvani hydropower plant in western Georgia have been marching along the central streets of the capital city of Tbilisi. From the First Republic Square protesters marched to Freedom Square and blocked Rustaveli Avenue, later returning to First Republic Square where they will continue their demonstration.
Eight individuals have been released following their detention during clashes with police over the construction of the Namakhvani HPP in western Georgia. Namakhvani HPP protesters, who returned from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi to Rioni gorge on May 26, were holding a demonstration at the iron wall in Gumati village since then.
Police detained Irakli Mukbaniani, a protester against the construction of the Namakhvani hydro power plant (HPP) using disproportionate force, witnesses say. Mukbaniani was detained in the village of Sakulia in western Georgian region of Imereti for assaulting a police officer during a demonstration in Gumati village a couple of days ago.
Four major economic studies have been published by the Georgian Ministry of Economy which attest to the financial and economic viability of the Namakhvani HPP planned in western Georgia. The release of the reports comes following large protests against the construction of the power plant.
Georgian Economy Minister Natia Turnava has announced that mediation on the construction of the Namakhvani hydro power plant (HPP) that is planned to be built in western Georgia will be held in the coming days under the leadership of the European Union.
Georgian authorities are negotiating with Enka, the Turkish contractor company for the contested Namakhvani hydro power plant in western Georgia, to improve the terms of the existing contract, including the unconditional transfer of land, water and other natural resources on a 99-year lease to Enka.