Photographers and former political prisoner Giorgi Abdaladze and Irakli Gedenidze were questioned today at the Parliament`s Temporary Investigative Commission.

Abdaladze gave a harrowing account of the events that unfolded during the violent crackdown on demonstrators near Rustaveli Avenue: "Police officers didn`t allow protesters to leave the area and severely beat them, leaving many with head injuries. They beat people terribly. They even stormed into the Rustaveli cinema. Many people were dragged out, already badly beaten. They made it impossible for anyone to escape. The crowd was forced toward the Parliament area - into an enclosed space -so that no one could get away. Everyone`s head was smashed, regardless of whether they were a man, woman, child, or elderly. They cuffed people and then left them lying in the rain on Rustaveli. When people begged for help, they beat them even more brutally".

“There was a newly dug grave. They threw me on the ground at the Jikia cemetery. I still had handcuffs on, I was on my knees, and when I looked up, everyone was wearing black masks. They started beating me, demanding to know who I had connections with, and they were hitting me from all directions. My head was down, I couldn`t even cover myself with my hands, so I used my elbows to protect my vital organs. Then I fell to the side, and they started kicking me in the legs below the knees. After that, someone hit me in the back of the head", - said Irakli Gedenidze.

As he added, one of the masked men, who was demanding that he “say everything”, pulled out a gun, cocked it, and placed it against his head: "I told him, `Be careful, it might go off. You know where I work`. He responded, `You don`t work there anymore`, and struck me in the face with the hand holding the gun".

On July 7, 2011, during the previous Government, police arrested 4 four photojournalists on fabricated charges of espionage. The detainees included Zurab Kurtsikidze of the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA), Giorgi Abdaladze of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Irakli Gedenidze of the Presidential Administration, and his wife, Natia Gedenidze, photo editor of "Prime Time".

After the change of Government, in 2016, the Prosecutor`s Office reopened the so-called "photojournalists` case", stating that the espionage charges had been fabricated. As the agency said, "the photographers were targeted for actively covering the violent dispersal of the May 26 protest". On November 22, 2018, the Court of Appeals acquitted all 4 photographers of espionage. In 2023, a Tbilisi court ordered the Government to compensate them for moral damages.