Manganese mining company Magharoeli LLC has filed lawsuits against 30 residents in the village of Shukruti, demanding that the residents pay a total of ₾5.5 million ($2.1 million), as well as restricting their property rights. 

The Shukruti residents’ lawyer,  Lado Kutateladze, told OC Media that they only found out about the lawsuits on Monday, adding that this latest series of cases aimed to pressure Shukruti residents to end their protest against mining operations under their village.

Residents of Shukruti have been actively protesting for several years to raise awareness of the damage caused by Georgian Manganese, the company that owns the licence to operate mines in Chiatura, a city and region in western Georgia. Magharoeli LLC is a subcontractor of Georgian Manganese.

The protestors have also claimed that in addition to damaging houses and spoiling agricultural plots, Georgian Manganese has not paid adequate compensation for this damage.

Kutateladze said that the Sachkhere District Court satisfied Magharoeli’s request to ban the residents from holding protests in front of the mine and to prohibit them from selling or mortgaging their homes in Shukruti.

The court already agreed to ban residents from holding protests in front of the mine in August. At the time, Magharoeli also demanded ₾5 million ($1.9 million)  in compensation for company loss experienced as a result of the protests.

[Read more: Shukruti residents banned from protesting outside manganese mines]

He believes the company sought to prevent Shukruti residents from selling their homes in order to ensure that it receives the money it is requesting if the court rules in the company’s favour.

According to Kutateladze, 13 out of the 30 new lawsuits were directed towards people who had never protested. He said that the company did not have the right to file these 13 lawsuits in the first place, and that ‘the court should not have accepted’ the complaint.

The ‘demands are absurd’

Kutateladze said that he believed the court would lift the prohibitions it had placed on the Shukruti residents if the proceedings went to trial. However, he said that it is not yet known when the discussion of the dispute will begin, as, according to Kutateladze, the company just wants to stall the issue.

He stated that it was more advantageous for the company to have a complaint in the court and for these prohibitions to be in force, rather than have a decision, in order to put pressure on the people participating in the protests.

Kutateladze also noted that the company is not currently able to work in the mines, but that this is not due to the ongoing protests, but rather because ‘the majority of the workers employed in the mine do not enter the mine at all as a sign of solidarity’.

‘Most of the workers in the mine […] told [Georgian Manganese] that [if] you satisfy these people [protesters], settle the relationship with them, then we will resume work’, Kutateladze said.

Giorgi Bitsadze, one of the Shukruti protestors who sewed his lips shut, told Netgazeti, that they are ‘victims of injustice’ and that ‘the company and the court act in concert’.

‘But nothing can scare us and we will be here until justice is served’, he said.

‘It’s the company’s business’

In March 2024, protesters began blocking the entrances to the Korokhnali and Shukruti mines, while additional protests temporarily stopped work at several other mines. 

In September, seven people began a hunger strike, five of whom additionally sewed their lips shut as part of their protest action.

On 11 September, several dozen demonstrators arrived in Tbilisi from Shukruti, asking the state to pay attention to their problems and their protest.

Police did not allow them to set up a tent in front of the parliament building. Over the ensuing week, the demonstrators spent each night in front of the parliament building without shelter, even when it rained. 

The demonstrators, including the hunger strikers, have required emergency care several times.

On Tuesday, the Public Defender called on the Interior Ministry ‘not to interfere unjustifiably with the rights of the participants of the ongoing peaceful gathering at the Parliament of Georgia and to give them [residents of Shukruti] the opportunity to use the tent’.

Shukruti residents tried to raise a tarpaulin on Thursday to shelter from the rain, but the police did not allow them to do so. Law enforcement officers did not explain the basis of their refusal when questioned by a reporter.

That same day, protesting Shukruti residents submitted a letter to the Government Chancellery requesting a meeting with Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.

Kobakhidze previously said on 13 September that ‘so far, it is the company’s business to conduct negotiations’ with protesters. Kobakhidze claimed that according to information they received, ‘the organisers of the protest, each of them received tens of thousands of laris compensation from the company’.