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Become a memberGeorgia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has frozen the accounts of five funding sources that assisted fined or detained participants of pro-European demonstrations in the country.
On Monday, the Prosecutor’s Office claimed that since 28 November the protests and marches taking place in front of the Georgian Parliament and across the country have taken on a ‘violent character’, and charitable foundations are ‘encouraging’ people.
‘The investigation has established that in many cases, the collection and distribution of financial resources for the organisation of illegal and criminal activities is carried out through so-called “funds”’, the statement read.
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According to the state agency, they have frozen accounts of Nanuka’s Foundation, Prosperiti, Foundation For Each Other 24/7, Shame Movement’s fund, Sirtskhvilia, and the Tbilisi Human Rights House.
‘We would also make a statement about the fact that we are being investigated in a new criminal case and our long-frozen accounts were frozen today, but we have not existed since October and all we can do is rejoice that [Bidzina] Ivanishvili is fighting the shadow of our movement’, the Shame Movement wrote on Facebook on Monday.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the funds have spent more than ₾2 million ($720,000) since December 2024.
Nanuka Zhorzholiani, the journalist and founder of the Nanuka’s Foundation told reporters on Tuesday that she hasn’t received an official ruling yet.
‘The prosecutor’s office has not officially informed me what their basis was, as a result of which they made a decision. It is one thing that they are issuing a superficial statement, another thing is what is in the case, on the basis of which they made this decision [...] When the search will be conducted [in her house], I expect that they will charge me, I do not exclude that they will approach the story of my detention [...]’, she said.
Since the government’s EU U-turn following the contested October election, Georgians across the country have held daily protests for more than 100 days. Human rights activists in Georgia have suggested that more than 400 demonstrators may have been detained during November and December alone — a large number of whom claim that they were subjected to physical or psychological abuse by law enforcement officers.
According to local media, hundreds of fines have been issued against demonstrators, and more than 50 criminal cases have been opened on various charges.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
In February, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that an investigation had been launched on the basis of an appeal by United Neutral Georgia, widely believed to be a pro-government movement, on charges of sabotage, attempted sabotage, and aiding and abetting hostile activities. The statement did not specify against whom the investigation was launched.
Before the October parliamentary elections were held, the United Neutral Georgia movement advocated for opposition voters to be identified and prosecuted after elections.
The group stated that Georgia remained afflicted by ‘revolutionary scenarios’, ‘pseudo-liberalism’, and ‘polarisation’ imposed from abroad, accusing opposition forces of being ‘rootless spies’ supported by their ‘outside patrons’ as well as domestic voters.
Shota Kincha
In Monday’s statement, the Prosecutor’s Office claimed that funds ‘directed the main part of the received financial resources to encourage people committing illegal and criminal acts, as well as to purchase the inventory and means necessary for committing these crimes [...] in particular, funds were received/disbursed from the indicated “funds”, including for the following purposes directly indicated during the transaction: “for the necessary equipment for the demonstration”, “what is needed for the fight”, “purchase of inventory for the demonstration”, “purchase of pyrotechnics”, “purchase of airsoft guns for the children of the front line”’.
‘As established by the investigation, a large amount of funds with the purpose: “purchase of airsoft guns for the children of the front line” were intended for financing those violent groups that attacked law enforcement officers. They were on the “front line” and were carrying out violent actions, as a result of which, as already noted, dozens of law enforcement officers, as well as protesters, suffered injuries of varying severity’, the statement claimed.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the organisational and financial activities of specific funds are ‘aimed at providing material assistance to offenders and their family members’.
The local civil rights group Social Justice Centre (SJC) stated on Tuesday that the freezing of funds ‘appears politically motivated, unjustifiably halts the work of specific civil society organisations, and ultimately aims to reduce the current level of protest in the country and punish participants in the protests’.
‘The decision regarding the funds is another blatant attempt to repress and criminalise peaceful, continuous protests, which violates the protection of civil and political rights in the country and represents an aggressive attempt by the Georgian Dream to consolidate authoritarianism’.
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The Interior Ministry charged Keshelashvili with petty hooliganism and disobedience to the police at the same protest where he was severely beaten up.
Georgia’s fifth president had said that political unity between opposition groups was ‘externally imposed’ and ‘unattainable’.
Both countries adopted the resolutions on Wednesday.
Students recently ended their sit-in protest at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University after police repeatedly entered the building on Sunday.
