Daniel Travis was detained for 12 days in Georgia (Image: TV Imedi / Daniel Travis)
A British man arrested in Georgia said he feared he was going to die after being accused of being a “foreign instructor” plotting to bring down the country’s government.
Daniel Travis, 28, was detained by “masked police officers” last month after being accused of trying to break into the country’s parliament building and being a “spy”.
Travis, from Liverpool, claims he was tortured by Georgian prison officers during the 12 days he was held in jail.
“I literally was walking out of a bar and I got arrested by the Georgian police, and I didn’t know what the hell was happening,” he said.
“They literally brought me inside the parliament building where I was then interviewed by the pro-Russian propaganda media.
“They tried to make out that I broke into the parliament building, which is a load of bull because it’s impossible to break into any parliament building, especially in Georgia because there was so many police outside.”
Mr Travis claimed that immediately after his arrest he was tortured by state authorities who he said battered him with their batons.
“I was beaten inside the parliament”, he said. “They beat me on the side of my hip, all over my arms, they didn’t beat me by the eyes because they know if they beat me by the eyes then it would be on the media. They are thugs, they are absolute thugs.”
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Daniel Travis had been living in Georgia prior to his arrest, but now plans to return to the UK (Image: Daniel Travis)
He added: “In Tbilisi prison I wasn’t fed for three days,” adding that the “disgusting” facility was infested with “cockroaches”.
It was while he was incarcerated that he started to believe he may never come out alive.
“I feared for my life”, he said. “They could just lock the door and I couldn’t speak to my family – it was horrifying to be honest.
“It’s so ridiculous, what the Georgian government are trying to say about who I am – like an army instructor and stuff like this. I’m 28-years-old, I’m a bar manager from London. I’ve lived in London for the past 13 years.
“I’ve never been to protests in England nevermind Georgia where I don’t understand the language”, he added.
He adding that he believed his arrest was “Russian directed”.
The claims come as protesters have taken to the streets to demonstrate against the election of Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former footballer-turned-pro-Russian politician, as the country’s new President.
Kavelashvili, who was the only candidate for the presidency, takes over from the pro-West Salome Zourabichvili.
Khatia Dekanoidze, an opposition MP in Georgia for the United National Movement, said that she spoke with Mr Travis and confirmed that he had been “severely beaten”.
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A screenshot taken from Daniel Travis’ interview with pro-Russian Georgian media (Image: TV Imedi)
Mr Travis said he was beaten during his detention (Image: Daniel Travis)
She said: “To say frankly, the police have been beating everybody so I’m not surprised that he was severely beaten up.
“We don’t really recognise the legitimacy of this president because this former soccer player, a very vivid and vocal anti-western person. Politically, he is nonsense. Overall we don’t recognise the legitimacy of the parliament or the president. The protests still go on, nothing has changed”.
She added that demonstrators will continue to stand up to the pro-Kremlin regime “every day, every night”.
Georgia has been gripped by violent protests for over two weeks. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets to voice their anger at the pro-Kremlin Government’s decision to freeze accession talks to join the until 2028.
This comes in the wake of October’s disputed parliamentary elections, won by the -aligned Georgian Dream party, which saw “vote buying and voter intimidation”, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Mr Travis told Daily Express that he wants to leave Georgia, but that he is “hiding”.
“I’m really not safe and I really want to leave Georgia as soon as possible to be honest”, he said.
The former hospitality manager pleaded: “I just demand the UK government help me and sanction Georgia for what they’ve done.”
The Foreign Office said it was in contact with a British national following his arrest in Tbilisi and was in touch with local authorities.