Police arrest 20, including journalist, during controversial eviction in Tbilisi

The Georgian police on Tuesday apprehended 20 individuals during the eviction of a family from an apartment on Kekelidze Street in Tbilisi. Among those detained, two individuals face charges under the Criminal Code. The Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a statement providing details of the arrests.

Eighteen people, including journalist Gela Mtivlishvili, were arrested for violating the Code of Administrative Offenses, specifically for disobeying a police officer’s request and disrupting public order.

Furthermore, a criminal case has been initiated for obstructing the protection of public order and for causing damage to a vehicle of the bureau. 

The Ministry’s statement mentions, “despite numerous appeals by the police for citizens to protest peacefully, the gathered individuals physically and verbally abused law enforcement officers. They employed an unidentified special tool, a so-called spray, and threw various objects at the police officers from the residential apartment window.”

On the same day, enforcement police executed the eviction of a family from the apartment on Kekelidze N1, Tbilisi. The police initially called on the gathered individuals, along with their family members, to leave peacefully. However, when they refused, the police forcibly removed them from the area, the body said. 

The enforcement police encountered challenges entering the apartment, as both entrance doors and the entrance hall were welded shut. Assistance from patrol police and the emergency management service allowed them to gain entry after more than two hours.Marina Khatiashvili, the former owner of the apartment, explained that she borrowed money from the Bank of Georgia in 2008. Due to a month and a half overdue in 2013, the case went to court, and the bank transferred it to private mortgagees. Khatiashvili ultimately repaid a 10-year loan of $20,000 to the bank, amounting to a total payment of $80,000 to private mortgagees.

Khatiashvili received the first eviction notice in the fall of 2019, and after appealing to the court, the eviction was postponed for three months. Despite subsequent postponements and pandemic-related suspensions, attempts to evict the family persisted, leading to confrontations between enforcement police and citizens.