Members of Georgian Orthodox movement sentenced for Brawl
Tbilisi, August 13, Interfax – A court in Tbilisi has sentenced eight activists of the Union of Orthodox Parents of Georgia to four-and-a-half years in prison each for starting a brawl at the office of the Kavkasia television station on May 7.
Several members of the Union of Orthodox Parents and the People’s Orthodox Union verbally insulted two participants in the company’s televised debates over a religious book and then attacked them, Kavkasia journalist Aleko Elisashvili said.
Kavkasia director David Akubardia and cameramen were hurt in the brawl.
People’s Orthodox Union head Malkhaz Gulashvili and his son fled to Russia through South Ossetia after the incident.
A Tbilisi court sentenced them in absentia to two months in prison for crossing the Georgian-Russian border illegally.
