Tbilisi City Court found Theona Baghdavadze administratively liable and imposed a GEL 1,500 fine. The case concerns alleged verbal insult directed at Natia Beridze on social media.
According to the available information, the case concerns a video published by Theona Baghdavadze on Facebook, in which POSTV representative Natia Beridze asks her questions and, during the conversation, mentions Baghdavadze’s late sister. Baghdavadze attached a comment to the video in which she described Beridze’s conduct as “disgusting” and said that she was manipulating the name of the person most important to her.
The case was initiated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Division for Combating Hate Speech. The division forwarded the materials to the court, after which the court found the conduct to constitute an administrative offence.
Tbilisi Court of Appeals upheld the sentence imposed on Russian activists Anastasia Zinovkina and Artem Gribul, who are being held in a Georgian prison.
Anastasia Zinovkina and Artem Gribul have been sentenced to 8.5 years’ imprisonment on charges of drug possession. They do not admit guilt and say that the drugs were “planted” on them because of their participation in the “December protests.”
Anastasia Zinovkina and Artem Gribul participated in pro-European rallies held in Tbilisi, where they provided protesters with hot drinks. According to them, this became the reason for their detention.
Anastasia Zinovkina has a serious health condition and has repeatedly accused the prison administration of neglect and degrading treatment.
Judge Davit Makaradze imposed a GEL 4,000 fine on activist Ana Bdeiani. The MIA accused her of insulting a state-political official under Article 173¹⁶ of the Code of Administrative Offences.
The case concerns a Facebook comment Bdeiani wrote under a video by Tornike Razmadze. In the video, Razmadze discussed statements made by Irakli Kobakhidze and Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan regarding the Treaty of Georgievsk.
Administrative proceedings have also been initiated against Tornike Razmadze over a comment written under the same video. Razmadze’s offence report refers only to Article 166, which concerns swearing in a public space, while insulting a state-political official is regulated by Article 173¹⁶. According to the lawyer, the offence report has not yet been amended.
Ana Bdeiani’s case is linked to administrative proceedings initiated over comments published on social media, which form part of the practice of the newly established “Division for Combating Hate Speech” within the MIA.
Judge Nino Enukidze fined activist Mikheil Zakareishvili GEL 4,000 over posts published on Facebook. The Ministry of Internal Affairs accused him of verbally insulting Bidzina Ivanishvili, Bera Ivanishvili, Shalva Papuashvili, and Judge Nana Shamatava.
According to the case materials, the MIA was informed about the alleged administrative offence by Merab Ghoghoberidze via email. The information he provided concerned allegedly insulting statements made about Bera Ivanishvili and Shalva Papuashvili. As for the posts concerning Bidzina Ivanishvili and Judge Nana Shamatava, according to the MIA inspector’s report, they were identified after reviewing Mikheil Zakareishvili’s Facebook page. According to the case materials, Zakareishvili published the disputed posts on 2 June, 17 June, and 3 July 2026.
The MIA accused Zakareishvili of offences under Article 166(1) of the Code of Administrative Offences, petty hooliganism, and Article 173¹⁶(1), which concerns insulting state-political and public officials.
Administrative proceedings against citizens over statements made in public spaces, including on social media, are being initiated on the basis of reports drawn up by the newly established “Division for Combating Hate Speech” within the MIA. The division has been operating since 1 June, and its task is to monitor and proactively identify statements that degrade human dignity, are insulting, or contain hate speech.
Judge Nino Enukidze imposed 15 days of administrative detention on Shota Odishvili, who was detained over an inscription on his T-shirt. According to lawyer Giorgi Tabatadze, Odishvili has been transferred to the Gurjaani temporary detention isolator. Shota Odishvili is an active participant in protest rallies. He was detained on 23 August near the Government Administration, after leaving a rally held on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.
According to the lawyer, Odishvili was sitting in an elevated area in front of the Government Administration and playing Sudoku on his phone. Tabatadze says Odishvili did not communicate with police officers; however, law enforcement officers later accused him of insulting the police.
According to the lawyer, an administrative offence report was drawn up against Odishvili under Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offences – petty hooliganism – over the inscription on his T-shirt, and under Article 173 – disobedience to a lawful order of the police – on the basis of alleged verbal insults against police officers. Tabatadze says there is no evidence in the case proving that Odishvili verbally insulted police officers.
According to Jano Chkadua, the lawyer of Zurab Menteshashvili, who had been found guilty over repeated blocking of a road, the Court of Appeals delivered its decision in Zurab Menteshashvili’s case without an oral hearing and dismissed the defence’s appeal. “Deciding the case without an oral hearing directly violates the right to a fair trial and the fundamental principle of publicity of proceedings,” the lawyer wrote.
Menteshashvili’s side was seeking his acquittal before the higher court. Menteshashvili is the first citizen to have been held criminally liable under the legislation tightened in the wake of protest rallies for repeated blocking of a roadway. He spent nine months in prison.
On 31 July, civil activist Tornike Toshkhua was detained near the Tbilisi City Assembly building. He was holding a sheet of paper reading: “Is Bidzina not a d***/is he?”
According to circulated video footage, during the detention Toshkhua asked police officers to explain the grounds for his detention. In the footage, police can be heard citing “hooliganism” as the basis for the detention. Later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed to Radio Liberty that Tornike Toshkhua had been detained under administrative procedure for an “insulting banner,” on the basis of Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offences – petty hooliganism.
Tornike Toshkhua had also been detained by police on 26 July near the Tbilisi City Assembly building, also over an “insulting banner.” At that time, he was holding a sheet of paper reading: “Is Bidzina a d***? Yes or No.” Following his detention, nine more citizens were detained near the City Assembly in solidarity. In the cases of those detained on 26 July, the court imposed administrative detention on some of them and administrative fines on others. Toshkhua himself was fined GEL 3,000 by Judge Zviad Tsekvava.
Toshkhua had previously also been detained under criminal procedure and left prison several weeks ago.
On 2 August, Judge Tornike Kapanadze imposed 5 days of administrative detention on Tornike Toshkhua.
On 28 July, late at night, the court concluded the hearings in the cases of 10 persons detained near the Tbilisi City Assembly on 26 July. The cases were heard by Judges Zviad Tsekvava and Tornike Kapanadze.
By court decision, four persons were subjected to administrative detention. Ia Melitauri and Nato Bolkvadze were subjected to 5 days of administrative detention, while Shako Baghdoshvili and Lasha Dgebuadze were subjected to 10 days of administrative detention.
The remaining detainees were fined by the court: Tornike Toshkhua – GEL 3,000, Vaso Beridze – GEL 5,000, Mariam Mekantsishvili – GEL 6,000, Marine Nanava – GEL 5,000, and Sandro Sekhniashvili – GEL 5,000. Consideration of Tornike Tikaridze’s case was postponed until 31 July, and he was released from detention.
In Ia Melitauri’s case, the judge did not establish a violation of Article 173 and found her administratively liable only for petty hooliganism. According to persons present at the hearing, Melitauri spoke about ill-treatment in police custody and showed the judge injuries sustained during her detention.
In parallel with the hearings, reports circulated about confrontations between citizens and officers of the Court Bailiff Service. Circulated footage showed bailiffs forcing citizens to leave the court building.
The case concerns the events that took place near the Tbilisi City Assembly on 26 July. Police initially detained Tornike Toshkhua, who was standing near the City Assembly with a banner reading: “Is Bidzina a d***? Yes – No.” Following his detention, citizens displayed banners with the same wording in solidarity, after which police detained nine additional persons. The Ministry of Internal Affairs alleged that the detainees had used obscene language in a public space and disobeyed a lawful order of police.
Citizen Giorgi Gogia was fined GEL 3,000 on the grounds of allegedly insulting Bera Ivanishvili, the son of the honorary chair of Georgian Dream. The decision was delivered by Judge Tornike Kochkiani of Tbilisi City Court.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs accused Giorgi Gogia, under Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offences, of verbal abuse in a public space, classified as petty hooliganism. According to the Ministry, Gogia insulted Bera Ivanishvili, the son of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and honorary chair of Georgian Dream, on the social network Facebook. The MIA qualified as a possible administrative offence a post written on 14 June, in which Giorgi Gogia shared a statement by Bera Ivanishvili and wrote: “said the son of a b***h who had Irakli Gharibashvili running around schools to beat up children.”
Administrative proceedings against citizens over opinions expressed in the public space are being initiated on the basis of reports drawn up by the newly created MIA Division for Combating Hate Speech. The new division has been operating within the MIA since 1 June. Its mandate is to monitor and proactively identify publicly disseminated statements that are degrading to human dignity, insulting, or contain hate speech, where such statements may contain elements of an administrative offence.
According to Radio Liberty, between 1 June and 2 July, after the division became operational, it identified 170 alleged administrative offences, of which 150 cases have already been submitted to court. Decisions have already been delivered in 33 of these 150 cases: 31 individuals were fined, while two individuals received verbal warnings. Most of those fined are citizens and activists.
Civil activist Giorgi Melitauri was fined GEL 2,000 on the grounds of allegedly posting an insulting comment on Facebook in connection with his friend.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs accused Giorgi Melitauri, under Article 166 of the Code of Administrative Offences, of verbal abuse in a public space, classified as petty hooliganism. The case concerns a comment Melitauri posted under one of Mtavari TV’s Facebook posts. The post concerned an attack on Melitauri’s friend, photographer Levan Zazadze. Melitauri’s comment was directed at the person who had attacked Zazadze and included profanity. The MIA’s Division for Combating Hate Speech treated the comment as an insult against his friend and drew up an administrative offence report.
At the court hearing, the MIA representative stated that it did not matter at whom the insult was directed. “They accused me of insulting [Levan Zazadze], but when they realized that the profanity was directed not at Levan Zazadze, but at his attacker, they said that it did not matter whether I insulted anyone or not; what mattered was that I had used obscene language in a public space,” Melitauri told Publika.
Administrative proceedings against citizens over opinions expressed in the public space are being initiated on the basis of administrative offence reports drawn up by the newly created MIA Division for Combating Hate Speech. The new division has been operating within the MIA since 1 June. Its mandate is to monitor and proactively identify publicly disseminated statements that are degrading to human dignity, insulting, or contain hate speech, where such statements may contain elements of an administrative offence.
According to Radio Liberty, between 1 June and 2 July, after the division became operational, it identified 170 alleged administrative offences, of which 150 cases have already been submitted to court. Decisions have already been delivered in 33 of these 150 cases: 31 individuals were fined, while two individuals received verbal warnings. Most of those fined are citizens and activists.
