On the night of June 23 to 24, 2015, two Spanish tourists, I.L. and J.G., were attacked and severely beaten while traveling from Mestia to Kazbegi, which involved spending a day near the area of Zugdidi city. They decided to visit the hot springs there but found the place blocked off for construction works. They were then redirected by locals to a place where they [the locals] had “diverted the hot springs to meet the course of a cold spring in a natural pool”. The two decided to camp on a field near the spot.

According to I.L., nothing seemed out of place during the day and they fell asleep at around 11 pm only to be woken up in the dead of night by a rainfall of thumping sounds on the tent. “Suddenly, we started feeling and hearing hits on the tent, and we woke up alarmed and shouting. I thought it might be a cow that was in the field that night, walking over the tent – that seemed to me the only explanation for the overwhelming weight that we felt pressing down on us.”

J.G. quickly realized that it was an attack when heavier hits started to impact on the tent, which eventually broke, and J.G. took the brunt of the attack with several blows to the head as he tried to stand up. When he managed to pull his head through the now broken tent he was able to see the distant silhouette of a tall, thin and slightly long-haired male running away towards the main road. “We don’t know if they left because they saw J.G. finally standing up, or because they just ran out of stones. A terrifying silence was constant throughout the attack: we heard no shouts, no talking and no laughter. Only the brutal hits one after the other… We knew that it had to be more than one person, because of the frequency of the hits,” I.L. told Georgia Today.

After an excruciatingly painful trip across the field, I.L. and J.G. made it to the nearest house and called for help. An ambulance arrived shortly and they were taken to Zugdidi Hospital, where, after undergoing several tests, they were told no bones were broken. J.G.’s left leg and right hand were immobilized in half-casts, while I.L.’s “mobility was not heavily compromised”.

At around 9 am, I.L. went to the police station to provide an account of the events. I.L. says the attitude of the police was very hostile and unprofessional. The translator, “whose command of English was questionable”, altered numerous facts about the attack and later stated that these were unimportant. The pair was later denied a copy of their own statement under the claim that it is illegal in Georgia. Georgia Today has since been told by a representative of the House of Law that it is in fact the legal obligation of the police force to hand over a copy of a statement to the giver of that statement if requested to do so. “The legal significance of this is frankly alarming: if we ever went to trial and the police happened to produce a fake copy of our statement, saying whatever other thing they want it to say, we have no way to prove them wrong,” said I.L.

To make matters worse, after arriving in Tbilisi, tests at MediClub Georgia revealed that J.G. had fractures in both his left leg and right arm, despite the claims to the opposite of the doctors in Zugdidi hospital, who also failed to give him a herapin shot, so risking “a potentially deadly case of thrombosis.”

According to J.G. and I.L., it seems that the police are not even investigating the case and they suspect that the detectives know who the attackers are but are secretly trying to have the case closed. “On our way back to Tbilisi we stopped in Chitatskaro to thank the neighbors that helped us, and they told us that no policemen had showed up after the incident to ask any questions. They were even surprised at the idea of stones being thrown at us, which means that no one had even remotely talked to them about the attack,” said I.L.

Georgia Today contacted the Ministry of Internal Affairs earlier in the week for more information but was told that no file had been recorded under the classification of ‘attack’ which means that either the Zugdidi police filed the case under a different classification, or chose not to file a report at all.

UPDATE 15:24 10/07/2015: Today Nino Giorgobiani, Press Office Head at the Ministry of Internal Affairs told Georgia Today that the injured tourists were interrogated by police on the day of the attack. An investigation is underway and at present intensive action is being taken in order to find and detain the offenders.

UPDATE 17:24 10/07/2015: The Georgian Tourism Administration plans to speak to the victims personally.

Christian Smith

10 July 2015 16:13