When Georgian protester Irakli Pipia started praying with a feeble voice, the policeman beating him drew closer to grasp what he was saying.
“When he understood I was praying, he got angrier and started to beat me up aggressively and shouting, ‘Is it helping? Is your prayer helping you now?'” Pipia told AFP.
Days later, the bearded anthropologist’s eyes are still bruised, he finds it painful to laugh and cannot yet eat solid foods.
Pipia, 39, is one of many protesters who say they have been beaten in the Caucasus country’s massive pro-EU demonstrations, in a political crisis that shows no sign of abating.
Tens of thousands have rallied for over a week in Tbilisi, infuriated by the government’s decision to shelve EU accession talks and accusing it of steering Georgia towards the Kremlin.
Police have arrested more than 400 people, with most reporting physical abuse, according to the Social Justice Centre NGO, which provides legal counselling to those affected.
The country’s rights ombudsman has accused authorities of “torture” and the violence has triggered outrage at home as well as international condemnation.
Tbilisi’s interior ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment. It has previously said police intervention was required when protesters turned violent.
But Pipia said he was snatched by masked officers as he defiantly but peacefully stood before advancing riot police on Tuesday last week.
He was dragged behind the police line, heavily beaten and then shoved onto a police van. There, masked officers took turns punching and kicking him, he added.
– ‘Kicking me with their boots’ –
Pipia is far from alone.
Journalist Aleksandre Keshelashvili had his nose broken by police in several places and underwent surgery, beaten by police as he covered the protests.
The crackdown has heavily targeted media workers.
“They were just hitting me, hitting me,” the 32-year-old told AFP in his home, where Orthodox icons hung on a wall.
He is still experiencing memory issues after suffering several small skull fractures.
On the crowded first night of protests last week, security officers grabbed him and threw him into a melee of riot police, taking away his cameras.
“I fell on the ground several times and they were also kicking me with their boots,” he said.
Then, he said he was “unconscious for a while”, before waking up to police officers “grabbing me and pushing me to the police van”.
The beatings left visible marks on his head, which he believed were intentional to serve as a warning to others.
– ‘No matter how brutal’ –
Police violence has only galvanised protesters.
Photos of their swollen and bandaged faces have featured prominently at protests, with banners of the victims hung on a Christmas tree outside parliament.
Videos of violent arrests have been widely shared on social media, showing police beating protesters who cower on the floor and officers chasing after people in side streets away from the main protest.
An opposition leader was beaten and carried away by the arms and legs, apparently unconscious, by masked security forces after a raid.
On Saturday, dozens of unknown assailants severely beat journalists from an independent broadcaster and stormed the office of an opposition alliance.
Security camera footage shows masked men hitting an opposition figure with a baton, shove him down a flight of stairs and batter him with kicks and punches as he lies on the floor.
Opposition leaders have said the attackers were thugs working in cahoots with police — which stood by without intervening.
The Georgian Dream government’s security forces had faced persistent accusations of deploying plainclothed security agents to target and attack political opponents.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has lauded police and accused the opposition of staging the attacks on the media.
Guram Imnadze, a lawyer with the Social Justice Centre, said the “systematic” brutality is aimed at intimidating protesters.
But despite the beatings, protesters appear undeterred to leave the streets.
Pipia said he plans to join the rallies again when he’s fit enough, even if the situation turns “brutal”.
“I cannot go one more step back because (this) is my homeland.”
ub/oc/phz
