Regional Correspondent of Radio Station "Imedi" Claims That Police are Pressuring Her

Regional correspondent of radio station "Imedi" Nana Pazhava accuses police of deliberately pressuring her. She says she may be administratively prosecuted.

According to her, she was a witness of one of the "outside" vendors' arrest that took place outside Zugdidi market on August 30, the vendor didn't obey the police officers and the journalist tried to film the confrontation with her mobile phone.

"An unknown person approached me at the moment and forcedly took my mobile phone from my hands; he hit me in the face and verbally insulted me. I thought he was a criminal, who wanted to rob me, therefore I also verbally insulted and physically confronted him, in a few minutes that person said he was a policeman, because of that incident the policemen abandoned the vendor and tried to put me in the car despite the people's opposition. The plainclothes policeman deleted the footage on my phone" - Pazhava said.

She also said that due to the incident in the market she has been charged with petty hooliganism and resisting police force. These charges may result in a fine or up to 30 days in prison.

"The law enforcers claim that I was the one who enticed the vendor to resist the police, in fact I didn't even know that woman, besides, if I did something unlawful the police would have to detain me at the site, which was not the case, they wrote the protocol in five days from the incident" - Pazhava said.

The journalist says she has been pressured by the police previously too. On November 20, 2005 when Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was to visit Zugdidi a local individual Luiza Pipia was abducted and the population held a protest rally.

"Head of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti regional police department Merab Gergaia was trying to put Pipia's mother in the car by force and I filmed that incident with my phone, the police were enraged by that fact and a serious conflict ensued, they even tried to physically abuse me. I have disclosed many facts hidden by the police before" - she says.

Pazhava has applied to Ombudsman's local representative and Prosecutor General of Georgia and asked them to protect her rights.