Anti-Government Protester Says He Left Georgia Following Abuse by Police Officers
Georgian anti-government protester Sergey Kancheli said he left Georgia after six police officers took him to a cemetery and subjected him to physical and verbal abuse, including physically assaulting him, scratching his face with a knife, threatening him with a gun, and pressuring him to engage in sexual intercourse. He said he is currently in a safe country.
According to Kancheli, 23, who is an active participant in ongoing anti-government protests in Tbilisi, six police officers stopped him while he was out running on September 27, took him to a cemetery, and physically assaulted him. “They scratched my face with a knife and threatened me with a gun, holding it to my head, chest, and other body parts. They were forcing me to engage in sexual intercourse,” Kancheli wrote on Facebook on October 7.
He said that “torture” lasted for approximately 50 minutes, after which the police left the scene.
According to the protester, the police actions targeted his civic position. He alleged that “throughout the physical and verbal abuse, as well as the sexual coercion,” the police ridiculed his civic position and referred to him as an “Akatsuki,” a Japanese anime-inspired term used by Georgian ruling party circles as a derogatory term for anti-government protesters.
“Many of you know how difficult it was for me to come to terms with the fact that I would one day have to leave Georgia, but Georgian Dream and its police regime managed to create this hell for me,” Kancheli said, adding that he has filed a complaint against the officers involved in the alleged abuse.
The allegations follow broader concerns over police abuses in Georgia, including throughout 2024-2025 protest dispersals, as well as several controversial incidents reported over the past year, including recordings showing police officers beating persons during or after detention in Georgian regions.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia said the following day that it has launched an investigation into possible violence against Sergey Kancheli by interior ministry employees under subparagraph “b” of part three of Article 333 of the Criminal Code.
“All necessary investigative and procedural actions will be carried out in the criminal case, the results of which will be additionally reported to the public,” the prosecutor’s office said.
This article was updated on October 8, at 14:20.
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