Georgian police have detained Gela Khasaia, a member of the opposition party Girchi — More Freedom on charges of causing an intentional minor injury, which carry a potential prison term of up to three years. His colleagues have alleged political motives for the arrest.
Information about Khasaia’s detention was first made public by his friends on Monday night. According to one of them, Marita Ratiani, concern over the activist’s unresponsiveness was initially raised by another friend, after which Ratiani went to Khasaia’s home, where she did not find him.
A Tuesday morning statement from the Interior Ministry revealed that investigators charged 27-year-old Khasaia, along with another unnamed 28-year-old individual, with inflicting various injuries on an unnamed 50-year-old man during an altercation.
‘The injured man was taken to the hospital, where he received the necessary medical treatment’, the statement read.
In response, Khasaia’s lawyers said they did not know the exact details of the charges, and were still waiting for the indictment and the case materials.
According to one of the lawyers, Irakli Chomakhashvili, Khasaia has denied committing any crime.
Another lawyer, Omar Purtseladze, who spoke to the Girchi press office early Tuesday morning from the detention facility, suggested that the case could concern an incident that took place on 1 September near Tbilisi’s Station Square, ‘about which Gela was never summoned for questioning’.
According to Purtseladze, during the incident, individuals unknown to Khasaia verbally confronted each other, which the activist witnessed, but he was not involved in the conflict.
Purtseladze did not rule out that this could have been a ‘staged scenario’ aimed at discrediting Khasaia and facilitating his subsequent arrest.
He also quoted Khasaia as saying that all the police officers involved in his detention had previously been seen patrolling anti-government protests. According to Khasaia’s account, some of the officers had in the past threatened him, saying that they would ‘detain him with non-administrative procedures’, an obvious reference to the threat of criminal charges.
‘One of the police officers said this to him [while he was being detained]: ‘I promised you I would detain you like this, under criminal law’, Purtseladze added.
‘Gela is doing well and keeping his spirits up. Based on the remarks and threats he heard from the police during his detention, he is convinced that the detention is connected to his political and civic activism’, Purtseladze later wrote on Facebook.
In turn, Chomakhashvili said that one of the police officers told Khasaia that he was being detained in the same way as Saba Shvitaridze — an opposition Ahali party member who was sentenced to two years in prison in September under a similar charge to Khasaia’s.
‘Another political prisoner’
Members of the opposition group Coalition For Change — which unites the Girchi — More Freedom, Ahali, and Droa parties — gave a statement outside the detention centre on Tuesday, condemning Khasaia’s arrest.
Ahali member Nika Parulava said that Khasaia is ‘yet another political prisoner’, as confirmed by his activism and the ‘repressions specifically targeting Gela’, as well as the fact that ‘the real offenders’, including those who attacked the demonstrators outside Georgian Dream election headquarters, were not punished under the same article.
‘[The government’s goal] is […] to instill fear, which in the end devours freedom’, Parulava added, noting also that ‘the Interior Ministry has been unable to provide anything beyond an oral statement’.
Khasaia has previously been detained multiple times, though under administrative charges, including in April 2024, during the protests against the controversial foreign agents law; in December, during the search of the offices of Girchi — More Freedom and Droa; and again in May 2025 outside parliament.
His penalties have ranged from verbal warnings to fines and days-long administrative arrest.
Since 28 November 2024, when daily protests erupted following the Georgian Dream government’s decision to halt the country’s EU membership bid, dozens of demonstrators have ended up in prison under criminal charges, many of whom have already been sentenced.
Alongside the demonstrators, numerous opposition leaders have also been imprisoned under various charges, including the leaders of all parties within the Coalition for Change.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
