Georgia Arrests 12 as Opposition Leaders Assaulted
Georgia police on Saturday arrested 12 people as opposition leaders were mobbed and assaulted in the western town of Zugdidi amid a tense atmosphere ahead of October presidential polls, officials said.
Protesters threw stones at leaders of the United National Movement (UNM) party when they arrived at Zugdidi Drama Theater for a party conference held as part of primaries to elect a presidential candidate for the forthcoming leadership polls, according to footage aired by local television.
The crowd of several hundred chanted anti-UNM slogans and attempted to thwart the conference but police cordoned off the area and escorted UNM leaders into the building.
One of the candidates, former deputy prime minister and President Mikheil Saakashvili's close ally Giorgi Baramidze, and a journalist received minor injuries.
"Twelve assailants were arrested and legal proceedings were initiated against them over petty hooliganism," the Interior Ministry spokeswoman, Nino Giorgobiani, told Agence France Presse.
UNM issued a statement accusing the ruling Georgian Dream coalition of staging "a stone-throwing rally."
But Interior Minister Irakli Garibashvili dismissed the claims and pledged to bring those responsible for violence to justice.
"We have pledged that the upcoming presidential elections will be exemplary. So we will not allow the violence and we condemn the violence," he said.
Saakashvili's UNM party lost out in parliamentary elections last October to a coalition headed by now-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.
The two leaders' uneasy cohabitation is to last until October 2013, when Saakashvili's second and last term expires.
Source: Agence France Presse
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