
Chiatura protest leaders receive long prison sentences on violence charges
The four leaders of the miners’ city protest were arrested in April 2025.

The four leaders of the miners’ city protest were arrested in April 2025.

The detention of four miners dramatically changed the direction of the Chiatura protest.

The miners stopped their hunger strike after being informed that doing so would help the release of their detained coworkers.

Unlike in many other countries, 1 May is not an official public holiday in Georgia.

The miners are calling on the government to step in to resume manganese mining in the central Georgian town of Chiatura.

In 2021, Vera Kupatadze was one of eight people who spent a month on hunger strike, her lips sewn shut, to demand compensation from Georgian Manganese for damage to her property. Today, Vera is one of dozens of Shukrutians who are demanding action and clarity from the company, which operates the mines in Chiatura, on the fate of their houses and the entire village. [Read more: Mine entrance blocked near Shukruti in renewed protest against Georgian Manganese] During the 2021 protests,

Residents of a village near the Georgian mining town of Chiatura have blocked access to a mine running under their village, to demand adequate compensation for the destruction of their village. Residents of Shukruti, in western Georgia, set up a tent outside the mine entrance on Wednesday, the latest in a series of protests against mining company Georgian Manganese. The land in and around Shukruti began to collapse in 2019, with Georgian Manganese initially denying any connection to the mine