Summary Georgia has charged two priests from over the violent disruption of a gay rights rally.
TBILISI (AFP) - Georgia has charged two priests from the country s influential Orthodox church over the violent disruption of a gay rights rally by thousands of ultra-conservative believers, the interior ministry said on Thursday.
"The interior ministry has filed charges against two clergymen who participated in the May 17 incident," the interior ministry said in a statement.
The criminal case was opened against the priests as part of ongoing investigations into the "illegal and violent prevention of the right to assembly", the statement said.
One clergyman is the head of a convent while the other one holds the rank just below bishop. Both were shown on national television hurling obscenities and death threats at gay rights activists.
The move marks the first prosecutions of priests over the anti-gay attack, although the pair have not yet been arrested, a ministry spokeswoman said.
Scores of rights activists were forced Friday to flee a rally in the capital Tbilisi to mark International Day against Homophobia after thousands of Orthodox supporters headed by black-robed priests broke through police cordons.
Activists had to board buses provided by police to escape the mob, which charged after them across Tbilisi s main square throwing stones, smashing windows and threatening to murder them.
Thousands of Georgians have demanded those behind the violence be punished in an online petition but so far only four men have been found guilty of the minor charge of disobeying police and given small fines.
On the eve of the rally, Patriarch Ilia II, the head of Georgia s Orthodox Church, called on authorities to ban the event, saying homosexuality was an "anomaly and illness".
Ilia has since distanced himself from the violence, expressing regret for the "impolite" behaviour of the anti-gay mob, local media reported.
Homosexuality is still highly stigmatised in Georgia, a socially conservative country in the Caucasus where the immensely influential Orthodox Church has previously clashed with Western-leaning governments over social issues.
Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has said the violence would not be tolerated and pledged Tuesday that church officials would be prosecuted if found guilty.
"Being a clergyman is no alibi. Whoever committed a crime, overstepped the law, incited and participated in violence, will be punished," Ivanishvili said on his official Twitter site.
