Hundreds of arrests and mysterious beatings as Georgia cracks down onprotests

11/12/2024 15:23

Seventy-five-year-old Marina Terishvili's teenage son Mamuka was shot dead at a nationalist rally in Georgia in 1992. Now her other son, Giorgi, has been arrested for his role in protests against perceived Russian influence in their homeland.



Seven police cars pulled up at her house in the capital Tbilisi on Friday and took Giorgi, a 52-year-old taxi driver, into custody, she said.



He was placed in pre-trial detention for two months for "participating in group violence" according to a rights group and local media, and faces up to six years in prison if convicted, part of a broad crackdown on demonstrators who have clashed nightly with police for almost two weeks.



The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association rights group said he had not yet entered a plea and Marina Terishvili said she did not know why he had been detained. "