Around 100 masked men reportedly raided Tbilisi’s Aspria gym on 24 December, with eyewitnesses linking the incident to Interior Ministry official Zviad Kharazishvili.
On the night of 24 December, reports surfaced claiming that ‘around 100’ masked men had stormed the popular Aspria gym in Tbilisi’s Didube District.
Suspicions that the masked men might belong to a riot police squad grew stronger after unnamed eyewitnesses claimed that Kharazishvili, head of the Interior Ministry’s Special Tasks Department, was spotted at the scene.
The masked men were reportedly seen assaulting and blocking onlookers who attempted to film the scene with their mobile phones. The men were allegedly looking for Giorgi Ubilava, a man local media has reported as being linked to Kvemo Kartli’s Deputy Governor Giorgi Shinjikashvili, who has been in conflict with Kharazishvili.
Earlier this year, local media identified someone named Giorgi Ubilava as being a former athlete and low-level enforcer involved in violent attacks against opposition members in 2016 and anti-government protesters in May this year.
‘I was there and saw with my own eyes these people […] The gym is large, and they practically occupied the entire space of both areas. They came in and forbade everyone from using their phones or filming. I have truly never witnessed such lawlessness before […] They were masked, dressed entirely in black, making them practically unidentifiable,’ an unnamed man claiming to have witnessed the scene told the TV channel Pirveli.
Following the reports, Aspria released a statement denying that any of their equipment had been damaged, after their security officers claimed to the Pirveli crew that their CCTV cameras were out of order.
OC Media reached out to the Interior Ministry and Aspria for clarification, but did not receive any responses.
In June of this year, several opposition-leaning TV channels reported that a conflict had broken out in a restaurant between Kharazishvili and Shinjikashvili. The dispute reportedly escalated to involve Interior Ministry employees under Kharazishvili’s supervision and an ‘informal violent group’ aligned with Shinjikashvili.
According to these reports, Shinjikashvili went into hiding as Kharazishvili allegedly sought revenge against him.
Who is Zviad ‘Khareba’ Kharazishvili?
Kharazishvili, widely known as ‘Khareba’, has spent decades in Georgia’s law enforcement system, with a career dating back to the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze.
He has been extensively accused of orchestrating the beatings and torture of recent anti-government protesters in Georgia, reportedly forcing them to praise him as he or his men filmed them.
In April, Ana Gakhokidze, a lawyer at the Democracy Research Institute representing one of the anti-government protesters detained that month, cited her hospitalised client as alleging that ‘Khareba insulted him, filmed him with a phone, spat in his face, and threatened him with retaliation.’
On 19 December, the UK sanctioned Kharazishvili’s immediate superior, Georgia’s Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri, along with Kharazishvili himself and his deputy Mileri Lagazauri, for their roles in the violent crackdowns on journalists and peaceful protesters against Georgian government’s decision to ‘halt’ the country’s EU membership bid.
Previously, in September, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Kharazishvili and Lagazauri for their role in ‘brutal crackdowns’ on protesters opposing the foreign agent law and political opponents of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Despite being under American sanctions, Kharazishvili was assigned in October 2024 to oversee security measures for the 26 October elections, a move critics of the government viewed as an effort to intimidate opposition voters.
[Read more: Concerns rise over US-sanctioned Georgian officer’s role in election security measures]
In what appears to be a response to domestic allegations of misconduct and the foreign sanctions imposed on him, Georgian officials have publicly lauded Kharazishvili since his name gained wider recognition in the spring of this year. This praise culminated on 20 December, when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that the government would nominate Kharazishvili, along with other internationally sanctioned Interior Ministry leaders, including Gomelauri, for the Medal of Honour.
[Read more: UK, US unveil new sanctions against Georgian officials responsible for violence against protesters]
