Georgian prosecutors have added a charge against opposition politician Alexandre (Aleko) Elisashvili, already jailed for attempting to set fire to the Tbilisi City Court in November 2025, claiming he successfully committed a similar crime in May. He faces terrorism charges in both episodes.
In Monday’s statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office said that on 4 May 2025, ‘in accordance with a premeditated plan’, Elisashvili, disguised and equipped with ‘items necessary to carry out a terrorist act’, approached the court archive located at the rear of the building.
According to the agency, Elisashvili first threw a burning substance into the archive room through a window — which caused a fire to break out inside — before setting fire to the window adjacent to another room, as well as to electrical wiring.
The office further claimed that, as a result, a fire broke out on the exterior facade of the court building and in the archive, where ‘hundreds of criminal, civil, and administrative case files were stored’. It added that the fire was extinguished by firefighters.
‘Through these actions, Aleksandre Elisashvili caused significant material damage with the aim of destabilising one of the branches of government — the judiciary — and the administration of justice, as well as by destroying court infrastructure, individual case files, and other important materials’, the statement read.
‘He also endangered the health and lives of three employees of the court’s bailiff service who were present in the building at the time’, the office added.
The statement was accompanied by over 1.5 minutes of surveillance camera footage, which investigators claimed shows Elisashvili setting a fire in the building. The Prosecutor General’s Office has charged the politician with committing a terrorist act, an offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Elisashvili also faces terrorism charges in connection with the November episode, over an attempted fire at the Tbilisi City Court’s chancellary — if convicted, he could be sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison. In that case, Elisashvili said he wanted to ‘set injustice on fire’, but he denied the classification of the action as terrorism.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
After his detention, Elisashvili complained of mistreatment, saying that his hands had been cuffed behind his back for four hours, causing him to bleed. The politician’s contact with the outside world is prohibited, including visits from family members.
In terms of legal categorisation, an apparent difference between the first and second episodes is that in the November case, Elisashvili is accused of attempted terrorism, while the May episode involves a charge for an action that was actually allegedly committed.
Commenting on the second charge against their client, Elisashvili’s lawyers accused the investigation of ‘fabricating a case’, noting that in the first episode ‘they couldn’t make a terrorism case stick, and now they are blaming Aleko Elisashvili for a fire at the court last year, about which no one had heard until now’.
According to the lawyers, the investigation into the May fire was initially conducted under a lesser charge — damage to someone else’s property — but ‘a year later it was elevated to terrorism, and they traced a politician behind it’.
‘In reality, this is a continuation of a campaign aimed at discrediting an opposition politician and portraying him as a criminal in the eyes of the public’, the lawyers said.
They further stated that the footage released by the Prosecutor General’s Office regarding the May episode ‘does not confirm’ Elisashvili’s involvement, and ‘according to an expert report conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office itself [on 26 February 2026], the footage is unsuitable for human identification’.
Elisashvili had already faced a criminal investigation even before November 2025. In December 2024, he was detained for an alleged politically motivated assault on Georgian Dream member Ali Babaev. The politician was later released on bail, while claiming he acted only after being insulted by Babaev.
Earlier, during the protests against the foreign agent law in April 2024, Elisashvili said police had beaten him, leaving visible injuries, including on his face. The incident occurred just days after he punched Mamuka Mdinaradze, then-chair of the ruling party’s parliamentary faction and current head of the State Security Service (SSG), during a parliamentary debate over the foreign agent law.
