A 23-year-old participant in Georgia’s pro-European protests, Sergey Kancheli, has accused police officers of torture and sexual abuse. Kancheli said he left the country following the incident. Georgia’s Prosecutor’s office said that the Investigation Department of the Tbilisi Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into possible violence against Kancheli by employees of Georgia’s Interior Ministry. The mistreatment of Kancheli follows a pattern of abuse at the hands of Georgian police officers and prison officials. The issue has received renewed attention after Giorgi Davitadze, an inmate at the Rustavi prison, said he was raped by prison guards , sparking protests and condemnation by the public. Authorities have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. In a Facebook post published on Wednesday, Kancheli said he was now in an unspecified ‘safe country’ and described an alleged incident that took place on 27 September. On Thursday, Kancheli told OC Media that he was stopped by six police officers while he was out running, taken to a cemetery, beaten, threatened with a gun, and subjected to sexual abuse. ‘On Sunday, 27 September, at around three or four in the afternoon, police stopped me while I was out running. There were six of them in total. They took me to a cemetery and physically assaulted me, cutting my face with a knife’, Kancheli told OC Media . He added that the officers threatened to shoot him in the legs, pointed a gun at different parts of his body, and told him to dig his own grave before continuing to beat him. Kancheli also said that the officers ‘forced’ him to engage in a sexual act, saying one of them pulled down his trousers and ordered him to perform oral sex. He said the alleged abuse lasted for around 50 minutes. Kancheli claimed the officers mocked his political views during the assault. He also said he had filed a complaint against the officers with the Prosecutor General’s Office remotely, seeking their identification and prosecution. Kancheli said the incident took place at Kukia Cemetery and was triggered after he refused to unlock his mobile phone. He described being initially stopped by three people, one of whom was wearing a police vest, while the other two were in civilian clothing. One of the men in civilian clothing allegedly ordered him to undress after they took him to the cemetery. Kancheli recalled being beaten and threatened before another man arrived. Three more people later joined them, whom he believed were also police officers. ‘All three continued beating me. They were hitting me with their fists […] Then they took me further inside, where they also beat me, near a grave fence. I could barely stand properly’, he said. Kancheli also described what he said was deliberate psychological and physical abuse, alleging that the officers gave him conflicting orders and beat him whenever he failed to follow them. ‘One would tell me to stand on one leg, then another would tell me to raise my hand in a certain way, and if I didn’t do it, they would hit me. They deliberately told me different things. For example, one police officer would tell me to raise my hands, and when I did it, another would say, “No, I told you to do something else”, and hit me. Then, when I did what the second one told me, the first would say, “No, I told you to do something else”, and hit me again’, Kancheli told OC Media . He also recalled that one of the officers found a photograph of Kancheli and his mother in his wallet, pressed his genitals against the photograph, and insulted his mother. Kancheli said the officer then threatened to burn the photograph, holding a lighter to it before eventually setting it on fire. ‘The photograph was plastic, so it was not badly damaged, but you can see in one corner that it was burned’, he said. Kancheli added that he could identify all six police officers. Georgia’s Prosecutor’s Office said on Thursday that they have launched an investigation into possible violence against Kancheli by employees of Georgia’s Interior Ministry. The agency said the investigation concerns a crime under subparagraph ‘b’ of part three of article 333 of Georgia’s criminal code , which covers the abuse of official powers by a public official or a person equivalent to an official, when committed with violence or the use of a weapon. The offence is punishable by five to eight years in prison, as well as a ban on holding office or carrying out certain activities for up to three years. ‘All necessary investigative and procedural actions will be carried out in the criminal case, the results of which will be additionally reported to the public’, the Prosecutor’s Office said. Kancheli described leaving Georgia as a decision he did not want to make, saying he left because he was worried about his family and friends. He said he had lived in Georgia for six years after moving from Russia alone at the age of 17. Kancheli said he had wanted to leave Russia since childhood and had worked to make it possible to move to Georgia, where he wanted to see his ‘homeland’, learn the language, travel, and meet his relatives.