On November 12, 2025, Afghan Sadygov, an Azerbaijani journalist residing in Georgia, was sentenced to administrative imprisonment for the second time under the pretext of blocking a road—he will spend 7 days in prison. He is accused of blocking the road on October 19-21, 2025. Afghan Sadygov had already been imprisoned once on the same charge, having been sentenced to 14 days of administrative imprisonment. At that time, the exiled journalist was accused of blocking the road on October 18.
According to the “Social Justice Center,” the organization defending Sadygov’s interests, at the time of Afghan Sadygov’s first detention, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) already knew that the journalist would stand on the roadway during the protest on subsequent days, but did not merge the cases: “This circumstance once again indicates that the MIA intentionally did not appeal to the court regarding the remaining days, so that the court would have the opportunity to apply administrative imprisonment against Afghan Sadygov twice. It is obvious that the MIA is trying to make an example of an activist actively involved in the protests by punishing him through the court.”
Since October 19, 2025, after the “Georgian Dream” parliament adopted another set of repressive changes under an accelerated procedure, 13 media representatives have been detained for participating in, and in some cases covering, the ongoing protest on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi. Administrative imprisonment was applied to most of them.