The Daily Beat: 21 January
The anti-Russia protests on Rustaveli Avenue continue, resulting in blocked traffic along the route. Protesters, who have gathered daily for nearly two months, are demanding the release of detainees taken during previous demonstrations and the scheduling of new elections. The central themes of their rallies are a call for justice and electoral reform. For more updates on resistance and related developments, visit our live blog.
Tbilisi City Court remanded two protesters, Davit Lomidze and Temur Zasokhashvili, in custody. Both protesters were arrested on December 1 during a pro-European rally near the Parliament building in Tbilisi for throwing Molotov cocktails at MIA Special Task Department officers and setting fire to the water cannon truck. They are charged with assaulting a police officer and face imprisonment of 4 to 7 years.
Kutaisi Court of Appeals rejected Mzia Amaghlobeli’s appeal and kept the journalist in pre-trial detention. Amaghlobeli’s lawyers had appealed an earlier decision by the Batumi City Court to remand her in custodyMzia Amaghlobeli, founder and director of the regional publication Batumelebi and its nationwide online sister publication Netgazeti, was arrested for slapping the Batumi police chief, Irakli Dgebuadze, following his alleged abusive and insulting behavior.
On January 21, employees of the Georgian Parliament Research Center—Salome Natroshvili, Mariam Chachua, and Nini Lezhava—issued a joint statement announcing that the Center’s director, Ekaterine Kardava, had informed the staff about a decision to liquidate the center. The employees claimed that this decision was retaliation for their public criticism of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) government’s decision to abort EU accession talks until 2028.
Tite Aroshidze, a member of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party in the Supreme Council of Adjara, was elected today, January 21, as the new rector of Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University (BSU), despite student protests at the university against his election. The GD member got ten out of the eleven votes from the academic council of the university. One ballot was invalidated.