The fifth President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili took to X on Sunday to denounce what she described as a new wave of repression against peaceful protesters by the ruling Ivanishvili regime. Using the hashtag #terrorinGeorgia, Zourabichvili highlighted the alarming rise in abductions of demonstrators by unidentified individuals using vehicles with foreign license plates. “Kidnappings of protesters by unidentified individuals, in vehicles bearing foreign plates, are the new version of repression by the Ivanishvili regime. I am in Washington to represent the voice of people who are seeing their rights and their future stolen!” she wrote.
The comments followed reports of two young activists, 18-year-old Otar Kvaratskhelia and 23-year-old Rati Tkemaladze, who were detained late last night near the Rustaveli Metro station. According to friends and legal representatives, the two were forcibly taken by unidentified men in plain clothes while on their way home from a protest. Witnesses stated that the men did not wear police uniforms, failed to identify themselves, and used physical force to push the protesters into an unmarked vehicle.
Friends and lawyers spent hours searching for Kvaratskhelia and Tkemaladze, as authorities refused to provide information about their whereabouts. It was only later confirmed that they were being held in the Digomi detention center. The Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the two were arrested for “disobeying police orders” under Article 173 and “violating public assembly rules” under Article 174-1 of the Administrative Offenses Code.
