Judge Davit Makaradze of Tbilisi City Court fined lawyer Shota Tutberidze GEL 4,000 over the alleged insult of Nino Tsilosani, a Member of Parliament from “Georgian Dream.”
The case concerns a comment left by Shota Tutberidze on Nino Tsilosani’s post of 2 June 2026. The post concerned a visit to Canada. Tutberidze wrote: “Should they insult you there as well, Niniko, or will you just visit the zoo and leave quickly?”
The complaint was not filed by the “Georgian Dream” MP herself. The administrative proceedings were initiated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Division for Combating Hate Speech under Article 173¹⁶(1) of the Code of Administrative Offences, which concerns the verbal insult of a political official.
This is the second publicly reported case handled by the new division. On 11 June, it became known that administrative proceedings had been initiated against musician Maia Darsmelidze over a post concerning Nino Jgharkava, a person affiliated with “Georgian Dream.”
The new division within the Ministry of Internal Affairs became operational on 1 June. According to the Ministry, the division’s main task is to identify statements disseminated in the public space that degrade human dignity or are insulting, and that may contain elements of an administrative offence.
