AiVOOVGeorgian police have raided the homes of three Georgian activists, detaining one of them on administrative charges. The raids took place ahead of Sunday’s protest, in which protesters attempted to block one of the primary roads into Tbilisi.
On Saturday, in a practically simultaneous move, police raided the homes of civic activist Kristina Botkoveli (known as Nancy Woland), Ilia Ghlonti, and Isako Devidze.
Woland and Ghlonti are the co-founders of Daitove, a Facebook group launched during the foreign agent law protests in 2024, which is used to help people from outside of Tbilisi to participate in the protests in the city.
The Interior Ministry told local media that they carried out searches at ‘various locations’ across Tbilisi based on a judge’s ruling under two criminal code articles: organising, leading, or participating in group violence, and organising or actively participating in group action that violates public order.
Woland reportedly felt unwell after the search at her home, and an ambulance had to be called.
According to Netgazeti, her lawyer, Shota Tutberidze, said that Woland refused to voluntarily go with the police for questioning, after which they reportedly threatened to take her to the police station by force ‘in an ugly manner’, suggesting that the police might have threatened to falsify evidence against her.
The police also confiscated her mother’s phone while she was filming them.
Woland told RFE/RL that the police took some of her personal belongings, including a phone, iPad, laptop, an old camera, as well as eight scarves with the stars of the EU flag printed on them.
Daitove co-founder Ghlonti was taken to a police station after the raid on his apartment. He said that the police confiscated some of his personal belongings as well.
Both Woland and Ghlonti have said that the raids on their homes were linked to the mass protest planned for the following day, when thousands of protesters gathered at one of the city’s main entrances with the intent of blocking it.
Ghlonti later said that Publika’s sharing of a social media card announcing the schedule for Sunday’s protest could have led to the raids on his.
In December 2023, the police searched both Woland and Ghlonti’s homes, later detaining Ghlonti.
Robin Fabbro
Also on Saturday, reports emerged of police also raiding the home of activist Isako Devidze, detaining him on administrative charges for disobeying the police. His lawyer, Lasha Tkesheladze, has told Tabula that Devidze went on hunger strike in protest against his detention, and that his client told him that he was verbally abused and beaten twice whilst in police custody.
‘He told me that when he was detained, he was physically abused in two stages: one, when they were taking him home, they physically abused him [in the hallway] and when they were already in the house, they cursed his mother, they called him various insults’, Tkesheladze said.
‘As a patriotic young Georgian man, he couldn’t stand it and said, “why are you insulting me?”, “what do you want, you criminals?” After that, he was physically abused again and violated. This is a violation of all kinds of laws. After that, Devidze was administratively detained’.
Local media reported that Devidze’s mother, Nino Chelidze, said that police confiscated laptops, perfume, and ₾2,000 ($700) from their home. Chelidze said that the money was a loan in order to pay for a surgery she had to undergo.
Devidze was previously detained on administrative charges in November 2024, also for disobeying the police and petty hooliganism. He went on hunger strike then as well.
On Sunday, Transparency International — Georgia (TI) condemned the raids on the activists’ homes, saying that the ‘regime is leading the country into a new phase of repression’.
‘Transparency International — Georgia condemns the violent policies of the illegal regime against peaceful civil activists, which will only further deepen the country’s political crisis. We call on [Bidzina] Ivanishvili and other figures of the regime to stop the repression against their own citizens, release the regime’s hostages, and announce new elections’.
Georgians throughout the country have for almost 70 days been protesting the government’s policies and announcement to halt the country’s EU accession. This follows October’s parliamentary elections, whose official results gave the ruling Georgian Dream party a large majority, with 54% of the vote.
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The ruling party proposes new legislation, including those restricting protests, claiming they are an attempt to prevent ‘deep state sabotage’.
Police physically and verbally assaulted protesters attempting to block one of Tbilisi’s major entrances.
In April 2024, Georgian Dream changed the country’s tax code to exempt companies from taxes in case they transferred their assets to Georgia.
Czechia is the latest country to sanction senior Interior Ministry officials for violently dispersing protests.
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