Protester Faces Up to One Year in Jail After Police Arrests Him for ‘Repeat Road-Blocking’

Georgia’s Interior Ministry said it arrested Zurab Menteshashvili on October 31 for blocking a road for the second time, with the protester facing up to a year in jail under the new rules that criminalize repeat protest-related offences.

Menteshashvili’s arrest marks the first recorded case in which police have launched criminal proceedings against a demonstrator over repeated road-blocking. More than a hundred are estimated to have been detained over first-time acts of “blocking roads” and “covering faces” during rallies under administrative rules since mid-October, when the new laws took effect as part of the ruling party’s crackdown on daily demonstrations on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue.

“This individual was arrested on October 24, 2025, under administrative procedure for a similar act and was sent to seven days in prison,” the Ministry said in a November 1 statement. “Accordingly, due to the repeated commission of the act, an investigation has been launched under Article 347(1) of the Criminal Code, which concerns violation of the rules for holding an assembly or demonstration,” it added.

The October 16 amendments, hastily adopted by Georgia’s disputed parliament, made protest-related offenses, including blocking roads, covering faces, and carrying prohibited items during rallies, punishable by immediate administrative detention of up to two weeks and by criminal liability of up to one year in prison for repeat offenses.

Rustaveli Avenue has been blocked nightly since November 28, 2024, when the Georgian Dream government, one month after the widely disputed October 26 parliamentary elections, announced a halt to Georgia’s EU accession process. The ruling party has recently pledged to end the daily rallies on Tbilisi’s main avenue near the Parliament.