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Office of the United National Movement was raided in Gori

July 1, 2020
 
Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

On June 26, the members of the Gori municipal organization of the United National Movement found their office raided. Nobody was in the office during the incident. UNM members stated that window-glasses were smashed, and equipment and technique were destroyed. 

“Since the Georgian Dream came in office, it is the fourth raid of our office. In the previous incidents, law enforcement officers knew that the people, who raided the offices, were supporters of the Georgian Dream. A businessman, who is close to the ruling party, broke into our office and smashed window-glasses in one of the previous cases. I do not know what exactly happened today but none of the previous incidents were investigated by police,” MP Badri Basishvili from the UNM said. 

The eye-witnesses stated that the person, who attached the UNM office, was middle-aged man, who told the witnesses to call the police after he raided the office. 

“The man, who was damaging the office, told me to video-record the incident and call police,” the eye-witness said. 

The police arrived on the site, who conducted investigative activities. Later, MIA reported that D.Sh, born in 1969, was arrested for the damage of other’s property. 

“Committed crime envisages from 1 to 3 years of imprisonment. Investigation established that detainee threw stones and damaged the office windows of “United National Movement” located on D. Garsevanishvili Street N1, Gori, appropriated TV and computer monitor, which was also damaged by the offender.

Investigation is in progress on the fact of damaging or destruction of other’s property, crime envisaged under the article 187, I part of the Criminal Code of Georgia,” the MIA statement reads. 

The members of the opposition political party stated that the authority had connection with the incident and believed that the office was raided to threaten them. 

“The entire office is raided; they purposefully attacked our office in the pre-election period and we think the government stands behind it because we have already commenced active campaign. We are distributing newspapers, in which we show the population what kind of palaces the members of government built with the people’s money and now they decided to revenge us before the election,” UNM member Kakha Lobzhanidze said. 

The ruling party responded to the accusations of the opposition with counter-accusations. Member of the municipal assembly from the Georgian Dream Mikheil Goginashvili said the UNM raided their office to blame the Georgian Dream for it afterwards.

“I suggest them to stop doing stupid things. Who wanted their office? They did it themselves to start complaining and attract attention because they know that they will lose the elections and are desperate. The Georgian Dream does not need their office at all,” Mikheil Goginashvili said.

Next day, UNM member Badri Basishvili held briefing and named the individual, who raided their office. According to MP Basishvili, it was Davit Shotashvili, an activist of the Georgian Dream. He had worked in the local public law legal entity of the Gori City Hall in 2013-2017. The members of the United National Movement state that Davit Shotashvili had raided their office according to the instructions of the ruling party. The ruling party members deny the accusation and state that Davit Shotashvili has not been the member of the GD for several years and he never worked in the public law legal entity of the city hall either. 

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