Edinburgh, United Kingdom – Late August saw 20 protestors sentenced to prison for participating in pro-EU demonstrations that have swept Georgia since November 2024.
The recent imprisoned protesters joined dozens of others who have already received jail time, including a 19-year-old student. Over the past 10 months, hundreds of dissenters have been arrested and more than 50 currently face criminal charges.
The latest wave of anti-government protests in Georgia started on November 24, 2024, after the incumbent Georgian Dream party announced it was withdrawing the country’s EU membership bid. The move came less than a year after Georgia had been granted candidate status.
Since then, the government has been cracking down hard on oppositors, arresting and sentencing the leaders of key opposition groups. The detained leaders usually face several months in prison and an additional two-year ban from holding office.
Ordinary Georgians who have taken to the streets are met with even harsher punishment, including prison sentences that stretch into years – as was seen in Tbilisi.
Of the 20 protesters sentenced, most were tried in two group trials: one group of eight and another of 11. Amongst them was another 19-year-old, and several under 30. Originally charged with organising or participating in group violence, their cases were downgraded to “violating public order,” a crime which carries shorter 30-month prison sentences.
According to the protestors’ defence lawyers, there has been insufficient evidence presented during the trials. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, (RFE/RL), a U.S.-funded international broadcaster, reported that the case files against five defendants in the lesser crime were nearly identical to those accused of organising- altered only by names and the objects allegedly thrown at the police.
Prosecutors also failed to demonstrate coordination among the accused, except for two political organisers. An independent report by NGO Transparency Georgia concluded that six of the eight defendants had never met before the trial on Tuesday, September 2. The same holds true for the group of 11 sentenced the following day.
Three protestors were also acquitted of drug charges. However, protestor Anton Chechin, a Russian citizen, was found guilty and sentenced to over eight years in prison.
According to his lawyer, a plain-clothes police officer detained Chechin and searched him in a car, where drugs were planted on him. During the trial, no video evidence of the search was provided. Chechin believes that Russian authorities pressured Georgian prosecutors to target him due to previous political activism.
Chechin’s lawyer also stated that his client faced physical mistreatment while in police custody, a practice which appears to be commonplace. Several protestors have spoken about their experiences of physical and psychological abuse while in detention, with police brutality widely documented. Some detainees have even been hospitalised and have required surgery after beatings from the police.
Before sentencing, several defendants gave defiant closing statements before the public. On September 2, 21-year-old Giorgi Gorgadze said that his time in prison would pass by quickly – after which “we, your children, and my children will live in the kind of country we want it to be — independent and free”.
On the September 3 trial, defendant Valeri Tetrashvili accused the government of incompetence, calling the defendants scapegoats. “Your actions are disgusting,” Tetrashvili stated.
Fellow protester Onise Tskhadadze said that the court “was no different from a Soviet court”, and that “the judges serve not justice, but the specific interests of specific politicians.”
Featured image:
Image: Georgian protester holds sign reading “Yes to Europe, No to Russian Law!”
Author: Jelger Groeneveld
Source: Wikimedia Commons
License: Creative Commons Licenses
