As we reported here last week, a pro-gay rights rally to be held at Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia was cut short after anti-gay demonstrators – mainly Christian Orthodox conservatives and their believers – disrupted the peaceful, state-authorized gathering with violence and intimidation.
This week, however, Georgian authorities are reporting that two priests have been charged in the attacks. The head of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi, Antimoz (Tamaz) Bichinashvili, and the head of the Ioane-Tornike Eristavi Monastery, Iotam (Irakli) Basilaya, have been charged with using or threatening the use of force to infringe on the right to peaceful assembly, the Georgian Interior Ministry said.
The two priests detained were caught on camera as they participated in the mayhem that erupted May 17 when a crowd of protesters broke through a police cordon to disperse a small number of people meeting in a downtown square to mark the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia .
When the LGBT community and their supporters showed up, they were greeted by hundreds of demonstrators who had already arrived well before. The small contingency of pro-gay activists were forced to be escorted to a smaller, safer area of Freedom Park but demonstrators broke through the police lines and injured 28, including one journalist.
The Christian Orthodox church issued a statement condemning the attack but added that, “Its clerics and believers only reacted to ‘an event that was provocative from the very beginning.’”
The clash has sparked a sharp debate over the power of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Georgia’s most popular institution, and the degree to which the government is prepared to hold priests to account for violating the law. Arresting priests is not a move easily digested within Georgia’s highly religious society.
The two that have been charged could face a possibility of up to two years in prison.
