Tensions have been rising for months in the country of 3.7 million people between the ruling Georgian Dream party and opponents who accuse it of pursuing increasingly authoritarian, anti-Western, and pro-Russian policies.
The crisis has deepened since Thursday’s announcement that the government would suspend EU talks for four years, with thousands of pro-EU demonstrators facing off against police armed with tear gas and water cannon.
On Tuesday, Georgia’s public ombudsman accused police of inflicting
torture on people arrested during six days of protests.
Levan Ioseliani, whose role is to defend citizens’ rights, said he and his officials had met people subjected to “the harshest treatment” by police.
“In most cases, they have received serious injuries in the face, eye and head area, which practically excludes even the possibility that the police used the necessary, proportional force against them every time,” he said in a statement.
Referring to claims that Georgian police have tortured demonstrators, Salome Zourabichvili, the country’s pro-EU president, told TVP World on Monday: “This is savagery.”
She also said that the decision to suspend EU accession talks had created a “civil rebellion movement” in the country.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on Tuesday that an attempt to stage what he called a “revolution” in the country had failed.
Though Georgia is an EU candidate nation, its relations with Brussels have deteriorated sharply in recent months.
The ruling Georgian Dream party, which is seen as being controlled by its billionaire founder, ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, has moved to deepen ties with Russia and China.
The party claimed victory in an October parliamentary election with almost 54% of ballots cast, but opposition parties said the vote was fraudulent and refused to take their seats in the chamber.
