The teenage son of the 75-year-old woman Marina Terisvili she had been shot and killed during a nationalist rally in Georgia in 1992. Now her other son, Giorgi, has been arrested for his role in protests against Russian influence in their homeland.

Seven police patrol cars arrived at her home in the capital on Friday Tbilisi and they took him Georgiea 52-year-old taxi driver, Terisvili says.

He was remanded in custody for two months ahead of his trial for “participation in group violence”according to a civil rights group and local media, and if convicted, faces up to six years in prison as part of a widening crackdown on protesters who have clashed nightly for two weeks with police.

The organization for rights Association of Georgian Young Lawyers made it known that Georgie he has not yet been called to plead guilty or innocent and Marina Terisvili says she does not know why her son is being held.

“I can’t deny that he was going to the gatherings because he had a brother who was killed on February 2, 1992 and he was going there to honor his soul”says Marina, adding that o Georgie he could not accept that his younger brother lost his life in vain.

THE Momoka he was 17 when he was killed during the brief civil war that followed Georgia’s 1991 exit from the Soviet Union, ending 200 years of Russian rule.

THE Georgie he is among more than 400 people who authorities and rights groups say have been arrested during protests against government moves to delay the South Caucasus country’s long-held goal of joining the European Union.

Around the 30 face criminal chargesmainly about “group violence” aimed at overthrowing the government. Among those imprisoned are two leaders of the country’s pro-European opposition.

Rights groups say the crackdown is unprecedented in Georgia, a country that was considered among the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union’s successor states.

Fireworks

Some protesters threw fireworks and other projectiles at police, saying they were defending themselves against tear gas and balloon attacks. The Ministry of Interior announced on Monday that more than 150 police officers were injured.

The party Georgian Dreamwho officials say won an October election that the opposition says was rigged, angered the country of 3.7 million people when he announced last month that he was suspending EU membership talks until 2028 .

Georgian Dream says it favors a pragmatic policy with Russia, which supports two regions that broke away from Georgia after the latter left the Soviet Union. The party says that his goal is to preserve the peace in the midst of the war in Ukraine.

Western countries have condemned the crackdown, and the EU’s ambassador to Georgia said on Monday it deserved sanctions.

The Georgian Ombudsman Levan Ioseliania former opposition politician appointed by Georgian Dream, said yesterday, Tuesday, that his office had visited 327 detainees, of whom 225 said they had been ill-treated and 157 had visible injuries.

Police announced that they found fireworks and materials for making Molotov cocktails at the headquarters of two opposition parties. Both parties said the police “planted” the materials.

In a press briefing yesterday, Monday, the prime minister Irakli Kombahitze he described the offices of the parties as “hotbeds of violence” and added that their attempt to seize power failed.

Masked men in black carry out attacks

Masked gangs dressed in black have begun attacking opposition politicians and some journalists in recent days.

Opposition supporters call the gangs “tituski”a Ukrainian word for thugs who had attacked opponents of the pro-Russian government before Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution, which sent the president fleeing to Moscow.

Two journalists from an opposition-friendly television station suffered visible head injuries in an on-camera attack on 7 December while they were covering developments from a demonstration.

On the same day, Mr Koba Habazia prominent member of the opposition party Coalition for Changesuffered extensive head injuries after being attacked inside the building that houses his party’s headquarters.

CCTV footage in Reuters’ possession shows approx. 15 men dressed in black enter the building and attack Habazi, who they push down a flight of stairs, before beginning to punch and kick him in the head as he lies motionless on the floor.

Speaking to Reuters two days later, Habazi, a 57-year-old former lawmaker, blamed the attack on the Georgian government.

“Of course the government is behind it”says Habazi, whose head is bandaged. “This government is built on violence.”

The Georgian authorities have stated that they are not involved in the attacks and that they condemn them. Officials of the ruling party have claimed that they are carried out by the opposition to incriminate the Georgian Dream.