Georgian court arrests six members of United National Movement party for rioting at polling station in Marneuli district
TBILISI. Oct 14 (Interfax) - The Rustavi City Court ordered pretrial incarceration of six residents of the village of Kiziloglu in Georgia's Marneuli district, who were detained on suspicion of organizing disorders and disobeying police orders during the parliamentary election at a village polling station on October 8.
The detainees do not admit to being guilty of the charges, lawyer Giorgi Kondakhishvili said. Three of them were beaten up by special task security policemen when they were arrested in their homes on October 13, he said.
All the detainees are members of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party and their detention by the special task forces that took place deep into the night "was an action aimed at intimidation of local population ahead of the second round of the parliamentary election in the Marneuli distcrict," Elene Khoshtaria, one of the leaders of the UNM party, told reporters following the court hearing.
It was reported earlier that a crowd of young men attempted breaking into a polling station in the village of Kiziloglu in the Marneuli district on the polling day, October 8. After local policemen did not allow them in, the crowd started throwing stones at the police, shouting 'Misha! Misha!' Several policemen were injured in the incident.