Georgia, Tbilisi, Jan. 5 / Trend N.Kirtzkhalia /
Georgian Public Defender Giorgi Tugushi appealed to the country's Prosecutor General and Interior Minister on Jan. 3, providing them recommendations in connection to the dispersal of the veterans rally and questioning the responsibility of those in violation of the Georgian legislation while dispersing the rally of veterans at Heroes' Square.
Tugushi's has noted in his appeal that the patrol police broke up a hunger strike of veterans passing at Heroes' Square near the memorial of those veterans who died for the territorial integrity of Georgia. It also provides official information regarding the Georgian Interior Ministry, under which Zaza Germanozashvili, Elijah Chiloshvili, Valerian Dzebirashvili, Levan Asatiani, Malkhaz Topuria, Cupid Revishvili, Sergo Dvali, Levon Asatryan, Leonid Ehvaya, and Shota Shota Yamanidze Zgudadze have been detained.
According to Tugushi, the protesters were detained on the basis of the 166th and 173rd articles of the Administrative Offences Code.
Tugushi said that a rough violation of the law occurred in respect of the veterans, as some of them, including those involved in the fighting in 1992-1993 and 2008, initiated a permanent stake in the Square of Heroes. A few veterans went on hunger strike near the Memorial on Dec. 24, protesting to the Tbilisi mayor's office about the action taken on Heroes' Square.
The action had been taken in compliance with the Georgian law on "Meetings and Demonstrations", according to which, the demonstrators should not occupy the carriageway of the street as well as not violate the law. However, in the appeal, Tugushi has mentioned that the veterans had not violated the law.