Former Georgian prime minister Giorgi Gakharia was hospitalised after he was severely beaten up. A report by the news agency Reuters late Wednesday (January 15) said that the attack happened on Tuesday.

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A spokesperson from Gakharia's For Georgia party told Reuters that the 49-year-old leader sustained injuries on his face and head during an assault by several men at a hotel lobby in Batumi, a city on the Black Sea coast.

"He was brutally beaten but survived," the spokesperson added. 

'A politically motivated attack'

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In a post on Facebook on Wednesday, Gakharia said that his health was stable. Meanwhile, For Georgia called the assault a "brutal, coordinated group attack" and said the government was to blame.

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The attackers had not yet been identified, and For Georgia requested any hotel security footage be handed over to police.

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Recent assaults on opposition leaders in Georgia

Gakharia had served as the PM from 2019 until 2021. The attack on the 49-year-old follows on the heels of other assaults on opposition figures and well-known journalists in recent months.

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Nika Gvaramia, the leader of the Coalition for Change party, was knocked to the ground and fell unconscious while being detained by police in December in Tbilisi. He was later jailed for 12 days for petty hooliganism and disobeying police.

Georgia has been plunged into a political crisis following an October parliamentary election, which the opposition charges was stolen by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party. The GD party, which has been in power since 2012, has denied any wrongdoing.

(With inputs from agencies)