Georgia: 'People Who Did This Must Face Justice'

After dragging Giorgi Chutkerashvili into their blacked-out van, the police in #Georgia's capital #Tiblisi noticed that he was was not yet bleeding.

"He held my head in place and hit me directly in the eye. He missed slightly the first time ... He even said, 'Ah, missed that one.' Then he struck me again, this time directly in the eye. That blow ruptured the back wall of my eye, and I have had one surgery because of it."

One year ago, Chutkerashvili was among hundreds of thousands of Georgians who took to the streets in massive demonstrations against the pro-Russian Government, 'Georgian Dream', headed by billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili.

The protesters were met by an unprecedented campaign of #torture and other ill-treatment by police and security forces.

To date not a single official has been tried or convicted for their crimes, and instead the country has experienced what European governments have called the "dismantling of democracy" 👉 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/jo...

"I told the judge everything. I said, 'This amounts to torture. What will the response to the case be?' The judge replied that he wasn't interested in any of that. He said that the only thing that mattered was whether I heard the police siren - because that is why they fined me."

Together with our member in Georgia GCRT - The Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and our partners in the #UnitedAgainstTorture Consortium World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and Omega Research Foundation, the IRCT has been supporting documentation of #torture cases to ensure that, despite a Government cover up, the fight for justice for survivors in #Georgia will continue.

With Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA) and Human Rights Center.