'Campaign of terror': Georgia's escalating rights crackdown

But he said “police are doing nothing to investigate, only trying to hush up the case”.

Rights groups say young activists who took a leading role in the anti-government protests are being targeted.

Tbilisi was rocked by a wave of street rallies after Georgian Dream was declared the winner of October parliamentary elections and then said it was shelving EU accession talks with Brussels.

Georgia’s top human rights official — ombudsman Levan Ioseliani — and Amnesty International accused police of torturing those arrested at the protests that saw tear gas and water cannons deployed against demonstrators.

In another recent incident, the pro-opposition Mtavari TV station reported that masked men beat a group of young people in central Tbilisi on Sunday night.

“Police officers stood by as if nothing had happened,” an eyewitness said. “This is the country we live in — police everywhere, but no justice anywhere.”

Tbilisi’s security forces have faced persistent accusations of deploying plainclothes agents to target and attack political opponents.

The attacks have intensified since December 7, when dozens of masked men severely beat journalists from the independent television station Pirveli, before raiding an opposition party office and beating up opposition leader Koba Khabazi.

Police officers stood by without intervening during the incident near the protest venue.

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), an influential rights watchdog, said “systemic and violent repressions against the civilians shall be assessed as the crime against humanity, which can provide grounds for applying to the International Criminal Court”.

On Monday, Brussels suspended visa-free travel to the EU for Georgian diplomats and officials, citing the adoption of several repressive laws and the “violent repression by Georgian authorities against peaceful protesters, politicians, and independent media.”

Last year, the United States and several European countries imposed sanctions on Georgian officials, pointing to the Tbilisi government’s drift toward Russia and its violent crackdown on protesters and dissent following the disputed election.