Jehovah’s Witnesses

For Immediate Release
June 11, 2001
(Georgian in PDF format)

Attacks on Jehovah’s Witnesses continue in Republic of Georgia

MARTVILI, REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA—A mob of 30, including two Orthodox priests, Gocha Tsaava and Giorgi Basilaia, attacked a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were assembled to study the Bible peacefully in a private home in the western Georgian City of Martvili, on Friday, June 8, 2001.

The mob assaulted two women, beating one with a stick and striking the other in the face while the priests looked on. These same priests attempted to force another woman to kiss a cross. Police called to the scene refused to intervene.

This is the sixth attack on Jehovah’s Witnesses this year in which currently ordained Orthodox priests participated in the aggression. It comes the same day as Dilis gazeti printed a statement by the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Georgia, which stated that “the Georgian Church works within those bounds that are acceptable to the Orthodox Church, which is peaceful treatment.”

Contact: J. R. Brown, telephone: (718) 560-5600