BBC: Georgian Police Suspected of Using Chemical Agent Against Protesters

A BBC investigation suggests that Georgian police used a chemical agent from World War I to break up anti-government protests in late 2024. The Georgian government calls these claims absurd, but the State Security Service has started an investigation. Critics worry that this investigation will target whistleblowers instead of officials.

Evidence Points to Camite

BBC journalists spoke with chemical weapons experts, doctors, and former and current members of Georgia’s riot police. They say the evidence indicates that the water cannons in Tbilisi contained bromobenzyl cyanide, known as camite. France used this chemical in World War I but stopped using it in the 1930s because of its lasting toxic effects.

Protesters reported symptoms such as burning skin, difficulty breathing, coughing, vomiting, and irritation lasting for weeks. According to experts, these symptoms don't match the effects of CS tear gas, which the police also used.

Medical Findings

Konstantine Chakhunashvili, a pediatrician who was protesting, said the water burned his skin, and washing it off made it worse. He checked on about 350 protesters and discovered that almost half had symptoms for over a month, like headaches, fatigue, and breathing problems.

Afterward, he gave 69 of them an exam and found a lot of them had heart rhythm issues. Toxicology Reports has reviewed and accepted his study.

Whistleblower Testimony

Lasha Shergelashvili, a former riot-police armaments chief, told the BBC that he had tested a similar chemical in 2009. After experiencing bad symptoms, he advised against using it. But he said the substance continued to be put into water cannon vehicles until at least 2022, when he left Georgia. Colleagues still working there told him that they used the same compound during the 2024 protests.

The BBC also got a 2019 internal list that included two unidentified substances labeled UN1710 (trichloroethylene, a solvent) and UN3439, a code that includes bromobenzyl cyanide. A former senior police official confirmed that the list was real.

Expert Assessment

Toxicologist Prof. Christopher Holstege informed the BBC that the reported symptoms, medical findings, and chemical inventory strongly suggest camite. He said that its long-lasting effects would make it a chemical weapon under international standards because safer crowd-control agents exist.

Alice Edwards, a UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, stated that this case could involve illegally testing chemicals on civilians and could be a serious human rights violation. She pointed out that riot-control chemicals should only have temporary effects, which the victims’ stories clearly contradict.

Human Rights Groups Had Long Warned About Chemicals

Georgian NGOs, including the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), had often said that police were adding unidentified chemical irritants to water cannons. Victims told rights groups about burns, breathing problems, loss of consciousness, and bleeding that lasted a long time. The Ministry of Internal Affairs always refused to say what substances they used.

Government Response

The ruling Georgian Dream party dismissed the BBC investigation as propaganda and said the findings were wrong. They announced they would take legal action against the broadcaster. Officials claimed that police acted legally against violent criminals and that no chemical weapons were used.

Georgia’s State Security Service started an investigation, mentioning possible crimes such as abuse of power and harming the state’s international image. But opposition parties want an independent international investigation because they believe that domestic institutions are politically controlled.

Context: Protests Over EU Accession Freeze

The protests started in late November 2024 after the government stopped trying to join the EU. Demonstrations continued for months despite increasing fines, arrests, and clashes with police using tear gas, pepper spray, and water cannons.