E/CN.4/2001/66 page 101 503. Members of a Jehovah’s Witness congregation are said to have been assaulted with iron crosses and wooden clubs by some 200 radical supporters of the Georgian Orthodox Church, known as the followers of Father Basil Mkalavishvili, while they were holding a Sunday service on 17 October 1999. A few adherents escaped during the attack and reported it to two local police stations, but the police allegedly refused to come to their aid or provide protection. Fifteen worshippers reportedly needed hospital treatment, including Fati Tabagari, who suffered a temporary loss of vision after she was struck on the head. The police are believed to have opened a criminal case after the Jehovah’s Witnesses lodged a complaint on 18 October, and laid charges against Father Basil Mkalavishvili. 504. Vladimir Begeluri and Georgi Todua, two Jehovah’s Witnesses, were allegedly assaulted by followers of Father Basil Mkalavishvili in the Gldani district of Tbilisi on 16 January 2000. They reported the assault to the Gldani district police and procurator’s office. No action is said to have been taken by the authorities. 505. It is reported that, on 16 and 17 August 2000, a mob of 80 followers of Father Basil assaulted several Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Canadian lawyer, Warren Shewfelt, and journalists who were attending at the Gldani district court the trial of a woman accused of participating in an earlier violent attack on Jehovah’s Witnesses. The security guards who were present did not react. On 23 August, a police investigator at the Nadzaldevi district police station told one of the victims of the 17 August attack, Giga Bokeria, that he would likely be charged with hooliganism. Giga Bokeria is said to be working for the Liberty Institute, a non-governmental organization dedicated to defending freedom of expression. 506. Giorgi Shiukashvili, on behalf of whom the Special Rapporteur intervened on 29 November 1999 (see E/CN.4/2000/9, para. 458), is said to have faced continuing intimidation and harassment in connection with his allegations that he was beaten and ill-treated in detention by Tbilisi police officers. When his case came to trial in January 1999, at Gldani district court in Tbilisi, he was reportedly acquitted and released from custody in the courtroom, reportedly in part because of the allegations of torture. Although a criminal case was said to have been opened against two police officers for physically assaulting him, nothing is said to have been done to pursue the prosecution of the officers concerned. It is alleged that Giorgi Shiukashvili was briefly detained on 25 May 1999 at Mtatsminda district police station, and that an officer there threatened to force him out of Tbilisi unless “he stopped fighting against the police”. 507. Giorgi Gogsadze was reportedly summoned to the Gldani district police station in Tbilisi in May 1999 and questioned about the whereabouts of a relative who was suspected of murder. After he failed to provide any information, he was allegedly beaten by six police officers. The beatings were said to have been filmed on video. 508. An elderly man known as Tqemaladze was allegedly beaten by traffic policemen in the city of Rustavi. A criminal case was reportedly opened against the police officers for “exceeding their authority” under article 187 of the Georgian Criminal Code.