3 Gay German Tourists in Georgia Beaten and Thrown in the River

In the mountainous Georgian village of Omalo, which borders Chechnya, three German tourists were beaten then subsequently thrown into the river after it became known that they were gay.

According to InterPressNews, the incident occurred a week ago. Several Georgian men invited the tourists to join them in their feast in a restaurant in Tusheti.

After a traditional Georgian toast, including one for love, the invited guests began to passionately kiss each other on the lips, reports Interfax news agency. The hosts attacked the men then tied their hands and feet and threw them in the river. Local residents pulled them out of the river and helped them safely out of the mountains, from where they got to Tbilisi and subsequently left Georgia.

Kakheti Information Center notes that no charges were laid as the tourists hurriedly left Georgia and did not appeal either to the Georgian police or the German Embassy in Tbilisi.

Update Sept. 23, 2011: Not too long after this (and the original source) article was published, credible sources on social networking sites deemed this story to be false. Epress.am, however, was unable to locate any follow-up stories by local news agencies to refute the story. Nevertheless, we would like to inform our readers that there is reason to doubt the veracity of this story.