Public Defender Levan Ioseliani issues a statement about the dissolution of the November 29-30 rallies.

The Ombudsman calls on everyone to contact the Office of the Public Defender in case of violation of their rights.

"On the night of November 29-30, 2024, police measures were taken in several stages against the participants gathered at the protest rally on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.

The Public Defender has repeatedly explained that concrete, individual and proportional measures defined by law should be applied to individual illegal actions by citizens, although this does not in any case create a legal basis for the complete disbandment of the entire rally and peaceful protesters.

In addition, there were no legal grounds for the use of special means against peaceful protesters and the arrest of dozens of citizens in the morning hours of November 30, when the demonstration was disbanded.

According to the distributed video recordings, the law enforcement officers used special means against everyone indiscriminately, detained any citizen they could physically reach, pursued them even to private facilities away from the main location of the gathering, abused the detainees in groups and multiple times, and deliberately attacked journalists.

Last night, peaceful demonstrators, journalists and detainees were violated the absolute right guaranteed by the Constitution of Georgia and the European Convention - prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment.

It is worrisome that in the recent period, as a practice contrary to the convention, large-scale and repeated facts of improper treatment of citizens during the dispersal of protests have been established.

The video recordings disseminated by the mass media, which depict the forms, methods and degree of brutality of the group violence committed by the law enforcement officers against the detainees, are particularly disturbing.

The representatives of the Public Defender met the arrested citizens during the last night and throughout the day. Among them, the representative of the Public Defender visited the journalist Mariam Gafrindashvili, injured as a result of the possible violence of the special forces, in the clinic. According to his explanation, he was performing his duty at the protest rally, when an unknown object hit his head and he lost consciousness.

The trustees made visits and continue to visit the detainees, both in Tbilisi and in isolation cells located in different cities of Georgia, as well as in Adjara and Guria of the persons detained at the Batumi rally.

During the last night and today, the trustees visited 41 persons, 40 of whom have the status of administrative detainees. 28 detainees indicated the fact of improper treatment by law enforcement officers (12 of them do not want to respond); 2 additional persons had bodily injuries, however, one could not be interviewed because he was placed in a medical institution, and the other, who was also in the clinic, did not want to give explanations; 18 people have various types of injuries, mainly in the face area.

Individuals who were subjected to alleged ill-treatment generally referred to deliberate physical violence by law enforcement officers in retaliation for their stated civil position. According to some detainees, physical violence was carried out by them not only directly during the arrest process, but also in the car.

The Office of the Public Defender continues to visit arrested persons in different cities, information about which will be provided to the public additionally.

"The hotline of the Public Defender's Office - 14 81 - works 24 hours a day to report cases of rights violations," the information says.