TBILISI, Georgia — Street protests against the brutal abuse of prisoners escalated Thursday in the Georgian capital, fueling anger against the Western-allied government and possibly boosting support for the opposition before a hotly contested parliamentary election. Two days after television stations aired videos of guards beating inmates and raping them with truncheons and brooms, thousands rallied outside the Interior Ministry and the Tbilisi prison where the abuse occurred. The demonstrators, some carrying brooms, demanded the ouster of the interior minister. Veriko Kapanadze said her son looked scared and tense when she last visited him in prison. “Now I understand why. It's like a Gestapo prison,” she said. “I'm awfully worried for my son,” said another protester, Nargiza Georgadze. President Mikhail Saakashvili has sought to defuse tensions by accepting the resignation of a minister in charge of penitentiaries and completely reshuffling prison personnel. But the simmering public anger threatens to damage his party in the Oct. 1 parliamentary vote and may boost support for the opposition Georgian Dream coalition led by billionaire philanthropist Bidzina Ivanishvili. Saakashvili, who has led Georgia since 2004, has remained popular thanks to economic reforms, anti-corruption efforts and moves to integrate closer into the West. But his image was dented by his handling of a disastrous war with Russia in 2008. The opposition has also accused Saakashvili of a systematic clampdown on dissent and independent media. — AP
