**Poet and Critic Zviad Ratiani Detained During Anti-Regime Protests in Tbilisi**
A well-known poet and vocal critic of the Georgian Dream government, Zviad Ratiani, was detained during a nighttime protest near Parliament in Tbilisi on June 23. According to the Interior Ministry, Ratiani assaulted a police officer, which is punishable by four to seven years in prison.
However, a video footage of the arrest shows officers escorting Ratiani into a police van without showing any evidence of an assault. In another video, when a protester asks why Ratiani was arrested, one officer responds that he “approached an officer and hit him without any reason.” But these videos do not capture the alleged assault.
This is not the first time Ratiani has been detained for his activism. He was previously held on November 29, 2024, and sent to eight days of administrative detention for allegedly being a petty hooligan and disobeying police orders. During that incident, he reported being beaten and insulted by law enforcement officers.
Ratiani’s case is not an isolated one. Several other individuals arrested during the ongoing anti-regime protests in Georgia face similar charges of assaulting police officers or public officials. Journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli has been held since January 12 after slapping a Batumi police chief, while teacher Nino Datashvili was detained on June 20 over an earlier incident at Tbilisi City Court.
In another case, a 21-year-old protester named Mate Devidze was sentenced to four and a half years in jail for swinging a stick-like object at police officers during an early-morning dispersal of a protest rally on November 19, 2024. Dozens of detained protesters remain behind bars, awaiting verdicts on charges including group violence and assaulting police officers.
**A Pattern of Police Violence?**
Concerns are growing about the fairness of these trials and the truthfulness of police testimonies. Not a single police officer has been held accountable for dozens of documented cases of police violence against protesters and journalists during the first weeks of non-stop demonstrations that erupted on November 28, 2024.
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