Intermediate Report Research of Pre-election Period - The Human ...

Instances of questionable arrests include:
On September 21, four individuals - David Patsatsia, Zurab Meskhia, Shota Bazerashvili, and
Constantine Labartkava - were arrested for committing an administrative offence. The four
of them were indicted under Article 173 of the Code of Administrative Offences of Georgia.
Patsatsia and Meskhia have already been sentenced to 40 days of administrative detention.
On September 22, the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained civil activists Dachi Tsaguria and
Bekar Aladoshvili. They were sentenced to 10 days of administrative detention. Against the
background of recent developments in Georgia, and taking into account that Dachi Tsaguria
was actively involved in organizing the youth protests, the arrest of the latter raises further
suspicions. We believe that such actions, especially when they occur in the pre-election
period, are clearly politically motivated. Furthermore, before being arrested, Dachi Tsaguria
had scheduled a meeting with NGOs in the Transparency International Georgia office.
Kakha Zhorzholiani, a Georgian Dream representative in Mestia precinct, was also detained
today. He was arrested on the basis of a complaint by CEC representative Archil Sopromadze,
who maintained that Zhorzholiani had a got into a fight and disrupted the functioning of the
Commission on September 20. However, four members of the commission, as well as several
other eyewitnesses, told us that no such instance of fighting or other hooligan activity had
taken place. According to them, there was only a loud argument and a quarrel. Our
information suggests that the basis for this particular administrative detention was petty
hooliganism, which is punishable under Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offences
of Georgia, and which leads to the imposition of a penalty of GEL 100 or administrative
custody for up to 90 days. However, regarding the activities of the election administration,
the Election Code of Georgia provides for appropriate measures in this situation, including
allowing the administration to expel from the meeting any person disrupting order
(paragraphs 15 and 18 of Article 8 of the Election Code). Therefore, it was improper to apply
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