Police arrest 2 for disobedience to police, petty hooliganism during Tbilisi Pride Week counter-protest

Georgian police arrested two individuals on the charges of petty hooliganism and disobedience to police officers during the counter-protest of Tbilisi Pride Week in Tbilisi on Saturday, the Georgian Interior Ministry told local news agency InterPressNews on Sunday.

The counter rally yesterday saw clashes between the police and the right-wing protesters that began after the latter tried to enter the closed area designated for the Pride festival.

The organisers and participants of the Pride festival had to be evacuated from the territory, with Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze on Saturday saying that police officers had “ensured their safe evacuation”.

Tbilisi Open Air group later on Saturday announced that their property and the territory Lisi Wonderland, designated to host the Pride festival this year, was damaged by the participants of the anti-LGBT rally and they “demanded” compensation for it from the Georgian authorities.

Georgian Public Defender Levan Ioseliani on Saturday called on the country’s Interior Ministry to respond “timely and appropriately” to all violations of law during the counter-protest.

The European Union Delegation to Georgia and the United Nations Delegation to the country, as well as some of the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia, condemned the violence against Tbilisi Pride participants and said it was “disappointing to see that [their] security and freedom of assembly could not be ensured”, urging Georgian authorities “to denounce” the incident and “hold those responsible accountable”.