Tbilisi City Court Fines Shame Movement Leader
Tbilisi City Court found Shame Movement Director, Giorgi Mjavanadze, guilty on August 5 and fined him GEL 2,000 under Article 173(1) of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which envisages police disobedience.
The case relates to an incident on May 17, 2022, when Mjavanadze was detained by police while he waited to pick up a fine at the Gldani-Nadzaladevi #9 Police Department in Tbilisi, the capital. Mjavanadze was officially detained under Article 173 then.
The Shame Movement alleged at the time, however, that Mjavanadze was arbitrarily detained and physically and verbally assaulted in the precinct after. The Special Investigation Service, the independent agency tasked with probing abuse of power, also launched a separate investigation regarding exceeding official power through violence, which remains ongoing.
Mjavanadze stated after the ruling, “This is a case decided by instruction, the judge could not even straighten her gaze, she just read the verdict and ran out of the room.”
“It’s unbelievable, there is no evidence [on the basis of which] she could have made this decision, by all logic I should have been acquitted,” he emphasized.
Mjavanadze plans to appeal the ruling.
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