PHYSICAL ATTACK ON JOURNALIST IRAKLI VACHIBERADZE IN KUTAISI
2012-05-22 On 2 May a journalist was attending an event with Micheil Saakashvili’s participation in the Kutaisi Opera. The event was recording by the presidential administration and journalists were not allowed to attend. According to Vachebiridze’s statement,s/ he saw how a member of the security team was asking a woman to leave the room because she was believed not to be the ruling party’s supporter. Vacheberidze began to take pictures of the incident and the security team member who was trying to drag the woman out of the room. After that he was attacked by several security staff members, beaten, forced to delete all made pictures and thrown out from the building.
2012-05-21 A closed meeting of the Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, Vice Speaker of Parliament Mikheil Machavariani and United National Movement’s activists was held in Kutaisi on May 3, 2012. Journalist of Post Scriptum newspaper, Irakli Vachaberidze managed to sneak in the building, but was intercepted by security who continued to kick him to the ground and verbally abuse him. They took his equipment away, which was later returned by unidentified individuals with all information deleted.