Georgian Dream members accused of attacking Gakharia and TI Georgia member in Batumi

Members of Georgian Dream, including MP Dimitri Samkharadze and Adjara Supreme Council member Giorgi Manvelidze, have been accused of attacking opposition leader Giorgi Gakharia and Transparency International (TI) Georgia member Zviad Koridze in Batumi.

On Wednesday morning, local media reported that both Gakharia and Koridze were attacked by figures from the ruling party almost 15 minutes apart, with Georgian Dream members reportedly attacking Koridze first.

According to IPN, Gakharia was in Batumi to attend the trial of a member of For Georgia’s youth organisation.

Levan Gogichaishvili, a member of Gakharia’s For Georgia party, said that the opposition leader was attacked by Samkharadze, Manvelidze, and other people whom he was unable to identify.

Tako Shantadze, a local doctor who had treated Gakharia following the incident, told the media that Gakharia had received a broken nose and a concussion, but that he had voluntarily left the clinic where he was receiving treatment.

Later in the day, another member of For Georgia, Berdia Sichinava, said in a press conference that Gakharia was alone at the time of the incident and that he was attacked by ‘about 10 people’, who had accosted Gakharia inside the hotel.

‘Of course, this was not a confrontation, this was an organised attack that was carried out against Giorgi Gakharia, who was alone’, Sichinava said.

He added that For Georgia was deliberately not revealing the names of Gakharia’s assailants, criticising law enforcement agencies and implying that they will not identify the attackers or prosecute them.

‘They already have the relevant evidence for this, if they are not destroying this evidence so that it is not available to the public, therefore, we leave them the prerogative to name the attackers’, he said.

Natia Mezvrishvili, one of the leaders of For Georgia, has filed a complaint with the Adjara Prosecutor’s Office regarding the attack on Gakharia. She wrote on Facebook that they demand that ‘all perpetrators and those who gave the criminal order’ to attack Gakharia be identified and arrested.

‘The case should be immediately transferred to the Prosecutor’s Office and the destruction of evidence should be stopped’, she said.

Following the incident, Megi Zhghenti, the hotel’s manager, told reporters that the hotel has ‘fully preserved’ footage of the attacks on Gakharia and Koridze, and that they are ready to hand over the material to the police.

The Interior Ministry has launched a criminal investigation into the attack on Gakharia as under the article an ‘act of violence’, which Georgian Young Lawyers’s Association’s Nona Kurdobanidze said was ‘too light’.

Later on Wednesday, pro-government TV channel Imedi reported that Gakharia had instigated the fight.

‘A years-long government campaign’ against Transparency International

TI’s Koridze was reportedly attacked at the Sheraton 15–20 minutes before the attack on Gakharia.

He said that he was attacked while he was alone on the phone in the hotel lobby by the same group of people who had attacked Gakharia.

Koridze said that he was in Batumi due to the arrest of Mzia Amaghlobeli, the founder and director of the publications Netgazeti and Batumelebi.

He told reporters that he was approached by Manvelidze, who wished him a happy new year and offered him a drink, which Koridze refused. Manvelidze then returned to his table, and a few minutes later, Samkharadze came into the lobby and approached Koridze.

‘He [told] me: “I know you, you are Zviad Koridze, I know what you are here for”,’Koridze said, adding that he responded by saying that he did not say anything.

‘He cursed at the [opposition party United] National Movement. I didn’t pay attention to it. Then he quickly walked towards the door, then came back in and started shouting: what did you say about the Kotsis [a derogatory term used to describe Georgian Dream members of supporters]? Who are you cursing at?’ he said.

‘He switched to swearing, insulting, and kicking the table with his foot […] When I saw him, all the [people at the] tables moved and he came towards me, I started moving towards the lobby, I asked the security for help, the security got involved. At that moment, one of them hit me with something. My glasses completely shattered’.

TI Georgia condemned the attack on Koridze as a ‘deliberate act of violence and retaliation by [Bidzina] Ivanishvili’s party against the Georgian civil sector and the representative of Transparency International Georgia’. They added that the attack was ‘continuation of the years-long government campaign against our organisation’.

Several opposition politicians have condemned the attacks and expressed solidarity with Gakharia and Koridze.

Georgian Dream’s Lado Bozhadze stated that the attack on Gakharia was ‘not a political vendetta’, but rather a ‘conflict that occurred in a hotel!’. Bozhadze also said that the police had launched an investigation into the attack on Koridze.

On Wednesday evening, self-declared interim President Salome Zourabichvili took to X to condemn the attack on Gakharia, stating that ‘violence is unacceptable, whether against a political leader or any citizen’.

‘This cannot and must not be tolerated’, said Zourabichvili.

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