Former Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, who now heads one of the country's main opposition groups, was hospitalized after being severely beaten late last night, a party spokesman told Reuters, BTA reported.
Gakharia suffered injuries to his face and head during the attack by several men in the lobby of a hotel in Batumi, a city on the Black Sea coast, spokeswoman Anna Buchukuri said. "He was severely beaten, but he survived", she said.
In a post on the social network "Facebook" Gaharia stated that his condition is stable.
🇬🇪 Former Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia was attacked in Batumi. Doctors diagnosed him with a broken nose and concussion
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) January 15, 2025
Journalist Zviad Koridze, who was also assaulted, claimed that members of the ruling party "Georgian Dream" were involved in the attack, specifically… pic.twitter.com/C2JbunCeIW
His party "For Georgia" assessed the attack as a "brutal, coordinated group attack", for which the government is to blame.
"This politically motivated attack is a clear attempt to intimidate the opposition and suppress those who disagree with it", the party said in a statement, quoted by the Interpress agency.
Georgia fell into a political crisis after the parliamentary elections in October, in which the "Georgian Dream" party was declared the winner, but the results are disputed by the opposition as falsified. "Georgian Dream", which has been in power since 2012, denies any wrongdoing.
Georgians have been staging nightly protests in the capital Tbilisi and other cities since November, when the government said it would freeze EU accession talks until 2028.
Police have used force against pro-EU protesters, and rights groups have reported hundreds of arrests and beatings. The government has defended the police's actions.
"Physical self-mutilation and incitement to violence against citizens by members of the "Georgian Dream" party have become part of the political landscape," the rights group "Georgian Association of Young Lawyers" said in a statement. regarding the attack on Gakharia.
"The ineffective response of the investigative authorities and the practical neglect of the crimes committed against demonstrators, journalists and representatives of political parties are worsening the criminal situation in the country," the organization said.
The attack on Gakharia, who was the prime minister of Georgia from 2019 to 2021, is the latest in a series of attacks on opposition figures and prominent journalists in recent months, Reuters noted.
The leader of the "Coalition for Change" party, Nika Gvaramia, was knocked to the ground and fell unconscious before being detained by police in December in Tbilisi. Gvaramia was later jailed for 12 days for petty hooliganism and disobedience to the police.
The identities of Gakharia's attackers have not been established. His party has requested that all hotel security camera footage be handed over to the police, the spokeswoman added.