TBILISI. Dec 16 (Interfax) - Over 100 demonstrators, mostly young people, gathered for a rally in front of the old parliament building on Rustaveli Avenue in the center of Tbilisi on Friday to demand bringing former President Mikheil Saakashvili and his entourage to trial "for crimes committed against the Georgian people."
The rally was organized by a group of young people with support from the Civil Activity club. Its participants held banners saying 'Red Terror', 'We remember November 7', 'Remember May 26', 'Don't forget victims of reprisals' and others.
Some posters depicted Saakashvili and members of his government, and others showed pictures of the dispersal of opposition demonstrations and people for whose death some put the blame on former government officials.
"Saakashvili's trial for his crimes should certainly be started, because justice needs to be restored from the beginning, not from the end. After the former president is convicted, other representatives of his regime will also be punished," Giorgi Egnatashvili, one of the rally organizers, told journalists.
Melor Vachnadze, the chairman of the Civil Activity club, said the student community in Georgia has been inertin the past years for fear of government terror.
"The people could not stand up in defense of their opinion for fear of persecution. And the fact that the young people have become more active now is good, and we will promote this so that active civil society be developing in the country," Vachnadze said.