The Tbilisi City Court has issued rulings regarding activists detained during a protest outside the City Council (Sakrebulo) building. Some received heavy fines, while others were sentenced to administrative detention.
The judge ordered fines of 3,000 lari for Tornike Tokhshua and 6,000 lari for Mariam Mekantsishvili. Two other participants were sentenced to administrative detention: Nato Bolkvadze will serve five days in custody, and Shako Bagdoshvili ten.
The day before, the court heard the cases of two other detainees. Vaso Beridze was fined 5,000 lari, and Iya Melitauri was sentenced to five days of detention.
All the individuals involved were detained during the protest at the Tbilisi Sakrebulo building and found guilty of administrative offenses. The published court information did not specify the exact nature of the violations.
As a reminder, a protest took place outside the Tbilisi City Council building on the night of July 26. Police detained ten people who were holding placards with offensive messages directed at Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the ruling "Georgian Dream" party, and were chanting similar slogans. According to the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, these individuals disturbed public order and resisted arrest. Administrative charges were filed against them for petty hooliganism and disobeying police orders. Reports indicated that one of the detainees was activist Tornike Tokhshua, who had previously spent a year in prison on charges of group violence.
On July 27, protesters gathered outside the building again to support those detained on July 26. The activists carried placards featuring various messages in different languages; one of them echoed the content of the banner displayed by the aforementioned Tornike Toshkhua. The text on it invited people to vote "for" or "against" an expletive-laden epithet directed at Bidzina Ivanishvili.
The demonstration took place against the backdrop of anti-government protests that have been ongoing since late November 2024. These protests began following the parliamentary elections—the results of which the opposition refused to recognize—and intensified after the government decided to suspend negotiations on Georgia’s EU accession until 2028. Participants are demanding new parliamentary elections, the release of detained activists, and the preservation of the country's path toward European integration.
