Tbilisi City Court has sentenced two anti-government protesters, Mindia Shervashidze and Tornike Toshkhua, to one year in prison each on charges of assaulting a supporter of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Judge Elene Goguadze delivered the verdict on Wednesday, concluding a case in which both defendants had remained in pre-trial detention since the day of their arrest, with the court regularly extending it.
The prison term will be counted from the day of their detention, which means both are expected to be released in August.
The two were accused of attacking Beka Gotsiridze, a supporter of the ruling party, near parliament on 1 August 2025. Investigation materials include a video showing a person being pushed and kicked by two individuals.
Toshkhua and Shervashidze were arrested on 16 August.
For their part, the defence argued that Gotsiridze had provoked the two, noting that he had been verbally insulting demonstrators. Meanwhile, other demonstrators who witnessed the incident also claimed that he was carrying a knife, which fell out during the altercation.
Gotsiridze was an ex-footballer who frequently insulted opponents of Georgian Dream on social media. In a Tiktok video posted after the incident, he emphasised that the demonstrators ‘couldn’t do anything’ to him.
Neither Toshkhua nor Shervashidze admitted guilt.
During a hearing in December, Gotsiridze stated that he had no complaints against the detainees, regretted passing by parliament on the night of the incident, and indicated that he wished for Toshkhua and Shervashidze to be released on bail.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Goguadze noted that ‘the victim’s position cannot in many cases be decisive for the court in determining what kind of sentence to impose or whether to be lenient’, though she did take Gotsiridze’s stance into account when sentencing the two to a year in prison.
The charge brought against the defendants carries a sentence of up to two years in prison, though non-custodial penalties, including a fine, were also possible. Explaining why a non-custodial sentence was not applied, Goguadze hinted that the defendants had not shown regret for the incident.
Gotsiridze passed away in February 2026, just over a month before Sherashidze and Toshkhua were sentenced.
