The Public Defender's Office calls on the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia to respond to the alleged ill-treatment of the Executive Director and a member of the Equality Movement by law enforcement officers in a timely manner.

On August 25, 2017, Public Defender's representatives visited Levan Berianidze, Executive Director of the Equality Movement, and Tornike Kusiani, a member of the same movement, in the Adjara and Guria temporary detention center. The detainees said that in the early morning of August 25, they and their companion transgender women were attacked by strangers in the Batumi Boulevard. They asked police officers to help, though they were just observing the attack and did not take any action; later, they arrested Levan Berianidze and Tornike Kusiani with the use of force and verbally abused them on homophobic grounds. According to the detainees, police officers did not explain them their rights or the motive of the detention. They were not allowed to make a phone call either. According to the detainees, they were subjected to physical and verbal abuse in the police station as well.

Unfortunately, many cases of violence and homophobic attitude have been observed in recent years, when the LGBT community accused police of inaction and offensive attitude. It is important the state to react to each case of alleged abuse of power by law enforcement agencies and to punish perpetrators in accordance with the law in order to prevent encouragement of similar violent actions in the future.