Supporters of the first president starved into surrender?

Every day brings another scandal in Georgia. This time, it is the spinning-up story with the arrest of Tsotne, the son of the first Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Following her son, his mother went on hunger strike, as well as their 60 supporters. GeorgiaTimes correspondent tried to find out the details of the whole affair from the first president's wife Manana Archvadze-Gamsakhurdia and from the Georgian politicians and human rights defenders.

Incredible as it may seem, Tsotne, the son of the first president of Georgia was arrested on the same day as the decision to establish a parliamentary interim commission for investigation of his father Zviad Gamsakhurdia's death was taken.

The first president's elder son Konstantin, leader of the Freedom party returned to parliament to take part in the commission's work, while his stepbrother found himself in jail. According to GeorgiaTimes, Tsotne is suspected of causing a gunshot wound to his neighbor David Badzhelidze. Thank God, the injured is well and alive. Besides, according to Tsotne's attorney Cathy Bekauri and his mother Manana Archvadze-Gamsakhurdia, the injured was never summoned for questioning.

As to Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, he does not admit his guilt and has gone on hunger strike in protest. He has been starving for seventeen days already. Neither the authorities, nor the human rights defenders, nor any political or public activists responded to the fact, so the first president's supporters decided to risk it all. They started with announcing Tsotne a political prisoner.

Later, on November 7, when the oppositional parties in Georgia were celebrating the second anniversary of the day of breaking up the rally they arranged a protest action near the ombudsman's building. It was the only protest action on that day that the policemen managed to break up. As was reported, the law-enforcement authorities interfered into the action only when the former Imedi TV company journalists came out of the office building and the first president's supporters made an attempt to punish them.

However, none of the mutineers was hurt. One could suppose that it was not only Tsotne's assurances that pushed Gamsakhurdia family' supporters into radical actions and that he is innocent. His attorney Cathy Bekauri says that the charge is cooked up, for no weapon was found in the crime zone; besides, according to Bekauri, Tsotne was not carrying any weapon at all.

Earlier, she had stated that the results of the medico-legal investigation carried out by the law-enforcement authorities were not confirmed by the independent experts.

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