Public Defender’s Statement on Events Developing on Rustaveli Avenue
Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia considers the ongoing violent events on Rustaveli Avenue and near the office of the Shame Movement extremely disturbing.
„By shifting responsibility onto the peaceful demonstrators, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili further exacerbated the already tense situation, after he described the March of Dignity as a cause for civil confrontation and said that "revanchist and radical" political forces were behind the Pride.
The Public Defender once again reminds senior officials that the protection of freedom of peaceful expression and assembly, including by responding to counter-demonstrators' violent actions, is a constitutional obligation of the State and calls on the law enforcement agencies to use legal mechanisms to remove alleged offenders from public spaces“.
Source: ombudsman.ge
