Georgian Police have arrested an activist and teacher accusing them of ‘assaulting a court bailiff’ during the trial of eight anti-government protesters, a crime punishable by a fine or imprisonment from four to seven years.
Nino Datashvili was arrested on the street in Tbilisi on Friday, her lawyer told Publika. Her phone was reportedly seized and she was not informed she was being arrested until she had been bundled into a police car.
Her arrest came after Datashvili attempted to attend the hearings of eight protesters in Tbilisi City Court on 9 June.
After bailiffs barred spectators from entering the courtroom, Datashvili asked on what legal basis they were doing so. Footage published by local media shows Datashvili then being pushed out of the building by several men.
‘The grounds for the detention are absurd’, Datashvili’s lawyer, Tamuna Gabodze, is quoted as saying. ‘It says that there is a danger of her committing another crime, going into hiding or influencing witnesses. None of those circumstances are relevant in Nino’s case’, she said.
In recent weeks, bailiffs at Tbilisi City Court have appeared increasingly aggressive toward supporters of detained demonstrators, as well as towards the journalists who cover the trials.
Chaotic scenes have erupted in Tbilisi City Court, where the high profile trial of a 21-year-old protester Mate Devidze is set to conclude. After hundreds of supporters of including Salome Zourabichvili arrived, court bailiffs moved to eject spectators from the building. pic.twitter.com/3k291uXAu3
— OC Media (@OCMediaorg) June 12, 2025
Just days after the Datashvili incident, on 12 June, chaotic scenes unfolded during the trial of demonstrator Mate Devidze, when the bailiffs moved to eject numerous spectators from the building.
One of them, Natia Chikovani, published photos showing severe bruises on her limbs, which she said were caused by physical violence from the court’s bailiffs. According to Chikovani, she suffered almost 30 bruises on her body.
Mariam Nikuradze
