| Protesters Attacked at Police Headquarters |
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15/06/2009 17:07 (239 Day 05:28 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- According to Civil Georgia, police, some in plain cloths and in masks, armed with batons attacked about 50 protesters from the youth pro-opposition groups, which were rallying outside the Tbilisi police headquarters on June 15.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that “the opposition supporters blocked the main entrance and the road. Police tried to unblock the entrance and the road, while the protesters resisted police officers. Police arrested the protesters during resistance”.
But eyewitnesses, including a Reuters photographer, who was on the site during the incident told Civil.Ge that protesters were not blocking the street and were standing in line at a sidewalk on the opposite side of a small street at the main entrance of the Tbilisi police headquarters. He also said that the police had seized cameras from journalists. Another photographer, Zurab Kurtsikidze from European Pressphoto Agency (epa), who was also there, was beaten; he had bruises on his head and back.
Maestro TV and Kavkasia TV, two Tbilisi -based television stations, also said that their crews on the ground were attacked during the incident. Both television stations have ceased airing their usual programming in protest.
“In protest against violence against our journalists at the Tbilisi police headquarters today, Maestro TV and Kavkasia TV stop broadcasting,” a written statement which is aired on the both televisions instead of their usual programming reads.
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