
The Daily Beat: 3 February
The ruling Georgian Dream party announced legislative changes aimed at increasing sanctions for a number of administrative and criminal offenses, including “insulting officials” and “assaulting police.” Threatening to attack or use violence against civic servants will become a criminal offense, too. Public calls for violence which used to be an administrative offence, will now be punished by imprisonment for up to three years instead of financial sanctions.
According to GD parliamentary leader Mamuka Mdinaradze, new measures are necessary as “the attempt to overthrow the government by the agents of the ‘Deep State’ continues.” He also said that the proposed amendments are only the first part of the process, further pledging that it would continue “until the adoption of norms necessary for the proper functioning and independence of the state completely replaces the imposed norms.”
On February 3, the GD government’s press service announced that the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) will be abolished as a legal entity, effective April 1, 2025. According to the official statement, it’s part of an effort “to rationalize governance and optimize expenses.” However, employees of the Bureau have critically assessed the move, suggesting that the liquidation aims to suppress dissenting voices within the public service.
One of the leaders of the opposition party – Coalition for Change, Nika Melia, claims that after the brutal arrest by the police during the rally near the Tbilisi Mall, he was beaten up by the deputy head of the police station, who goes by the surname Chokuri. Melia’s lawyer demands an immediate investigation by the Special Investigation Service into the violence committed against his client in the police department building. For more updates on resistance-related developments, tab our live blog: Resistance.
Representatives of the Office of the Public Defender visited 25 people detained on administrative charges on 2 and 3 February and found it “alarming” that 22 of those detained reported cases of ill-treatment by police officers. The announcement posted on Facebook, says that 9 detainees reported being ill-treated both during their arrest and after being placed in a minibus where they were deliberately physically assaulted. The post also highlights that 11 detainees had visible injuries to their faces and some had signs of injuries to their bodies.
iFact, a local media outlet focused on investigative journalism, published its investigative report entitled “Invisible Cargo: the Path of Sanctioned Oil from Russia To Europe” on January 22 suggesting that Russian oil reaches Europe through Georgia. According to iFact in 2023-2024, 99,000 tons of Georgian-origin oil worth a total of Euros 49 million entered Spain from Georgia.
The director of the First Channel’s live broadcast, Kakha Melikidze, stated at the board meeting of the Public Broadcaster that during live broadcasts of the Georgian national football team’s matches, the channel’s management requested him to show Irakli Kobakhidze on the air as often as possible. Melikidze also noted that when he showed an image of President Salome Zurabishvili for a few seconds during a match between the Georgian and Luxembourg national teams, he was “summoned” for an explanation.
The Social Justice Center (SJC), a local human rights watchdog said the “excessive use of force by police officers” and the “brutal retaliation” against demonstrators had become a “normalized practice” in recent protests. The SJC calls on both the Special Investigation Service (SIS) and the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate cases of police brutality, with particular reference to the potential accountability of senior officers, including Zviad Kharazishvili.
More than 40 media outlets, including Civil.ge, released a joint statement condemning the attack on online media Publika on 1 February by the speaker of the GD parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, who accused the publication of “committing a criminal offense” for its reporting about the planned protest near the Tbilisi Mall on 2 February. Papuashvili also took this opportunity to slam the European Union, writing that “Publika is an organization funded by the European Union budget.”