Poet Zviad Ratiani was arrested during a protest near the Parliament building on the night of June 23, and is facing charges of assaulting a police officer.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs says Ratiani was detained under Article 353 of the Criminal Code, which pertains to violence against a law enforcement officer—a charge punishable by four to seven years in prison.
In a video circulating on social media, Davit Mamageishvili, a senior official of the patrol police, claimed that Ratiani attacked an officer without provocation. “He approached a police officer and hit him, for absolutely no reason,” Mamageishvili said.
The arrest has drawn public attention, given Ratiani’s prominence in Georgia’s cultural and intellectual circles.
