Special operation in Tbilisi provokes mass protest action

Several hundred people gathered for a spontaneous rally in central Tbilisi to protest against drug policemen's raiding over nightclubs. During the rally, Zurab Djaparidze, the head of the "Girchi" Party, and Beka Tsikarishvili, the leader of the White Noise Movement, were detained.

Following the court judgement, last night, the police of Georgia inspected the nightclubs "Bassiani" and "Galleri". Eight people were detained.

Before the raids, for three months, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) had been conducting an investigation to reveal the facts of drug sales in these nightclubs, says the Georgian MIA's website.

Tbilisi residents, dissatisfied with the raids and expulsion of visitors from the above nightclubs, gathered near the building of the parliament. Law enforcers detained some of the protesters, the "Rustavi-2" TV Channel has reported.

The administrations of the Bassiani and Mtkvarze nightclubs urged citizens to get together near the parliament for the action under the motto "We dance together, we fight together". In total, the action has attracted a few hundred people.