The Social Justice Center once again responds to the growing number of attacks on activists and politicians and asserts that the physical retaliation on protesters are part of an orchestrated campaign of violence planned and propagated by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

The most recent incident involving a political figure became known on May 24, 2025. According to information provided to the media by Grigol Gegelia, a politician and member of the opposition party Strong Georgia, he was pursued by an unknown individual in a car in Tbilisi and was later physically attacked. Gegelia stated that he was verbally abused and struck multiple times in the head. He claims to have remembered the car’s license plate and reported the incident to law enforcement. Therefore, identifying the vehicle involved should pose no technical difficulty for the police.

Another attack on a protest participant became known on May 11, 2025. Taia Tskhvava, a citizen of Georgia posted on social media that she was approached on the street by two unknown men, one of whom sprayed her with what appeared to be pepper spray, after which both men pushed her to the ground. According to the victim, the assault was linked to her participation in protest rallies, as the attackers warned her that if she continued to protest, worse would follow.

Just a few days earlier, on May 5, activist Nutsa Makharadze was attacked in her apartment building while riding the elevator with fellow protest participants - Keti Jananashvili and Salome Sarishvili. Makharadze reports that as the elevator stopped, the attacker sprayed pepper spray and antiseptic commonly known as brilliant green through a gap in the iron door. The individuals inside the elevator suffered physical injuries—first-degree burns from the pepper spray and corneal damage in Sarishvili's case.

Especially alarming is the fact that this incident does not appear to be isolated. The activists had already been subjected to ongoing surveillance and harassment. A few days prior to the attack, Nutsa Makharadze and her friends were followed into their building by a masked individual. In the weeks leading up to the attack, unknown persons had been following Makharadze and Jananashvili, and in one instance even damaged Jananashvili's car. Taken together, these actions contain several offenses under the Georgian Criminal Code, including violence, stalking, and property damage. Despite an investigation being launched, no perpetrators have yet been identified.

At the beginning of May, poet Zviad Ratiani became a victim of violence for the third time. He was previously beaten on November 28 by officers of the Special Tasks Department, and again on December 12 near his home entrance. A new incident of violence against Ratiani surfaced in early May. According to a now-deleted social media post, he was attacked on a bus. Ratiani wrote that he had no intention of contacting the police, fearing that the blame would instead be shifted onto him.

Attacks on activists have especially intensified since the spring of 2024, following the initiation of the so-called "Russian Law" in the Georgian Parliament—a development to which a reputable international organization Human Rights Watch dedicated an extensive report. The attack on activist Niko Managadze in June 2024 remains unsolved, despite clear video footage identifying the attackers. Around the same time, activist Kote Abdushelishvili was assaulted in a crowded area on Melikishvili Street in Tbilisi, which is monitored by numerous surveillance cameras. In neither case have the perpetrators been identified by the investigation. Similarly, there has been no progress in investigations into ambush-style attacks on politicians and politically active individuals during the spring 2024 protests. These incidents strongly suggest that the attacks are being carried out under a coordinated campaign and with a sense of impunity.

Pressure on journalists, human rights defenders, and activists reached a new critical level following the 2024 parliamentary elections and the protest rallies that began after November 28. However, investigative bodies deliberately refrain from taking appropriate steps to identify those responsible. This creates the impression of coordinated action, suggesting that individuals affiliated with or influenced by the ruling party are acting with impunity and carrying out politically motivated assignments. To date, no one has been held accountable for the abduction and assault of activist Vakhtang Pitskhelauri from Gori. Several journalists were also injured while covering the protests that began in the winter of 2024. The attackers of journalists Maka Chikhladze and Giorgi Shesuruli likewise remain unpunished. The perpetrators have not been identified even in cases that occurred in the immediate vicinity of the police, directly in their line of sight. One such case is the attack on journalist Mindia Gabadze. Although the police witnessed the incident, they did not pursue the attackers, nor did they take all necessary measures to identify them afterward.

It is noteworthy that the state apparatus does not rely solely on physical force against those participating in protests. To intimidate citizens involved in resistance, the system resorts to various forms of terror. As early as December, law enforcement agencies have been conducting intensive searches of the workplaces and homes of politicians and activists, primarily seizing electronic devices. For this purpose, the homes of the founders of the Facebook group Daitove were searched twice. On March 17, based on a motion by the Prosecutor’s Office, the bank accounts and monetary assets of funds that were providing financial support to individuals detained or fined under criminal or administrative charges in the context of the protests were frozen. The purpose of these asset freezes was solely to suppress the protest movement in the country and represents an example of the use of criminal justice mechanisms for political purposes. This same practice of terror continued on April 29, when the homes of individuals associated with these same funds and organizations were searched. These included Aleko Tsikitishvili, head of the Human Rights Center; Nanuka Zhorzholiani, founder of the Nanuka Foundation; her daughter Mariam Geguchadze; Mariam Bajelidze, one of the founders of the Shame Movement; and Guga Khelaia, head of the For Each Other Foundation.

According to the Social Justice Center, the physical attacks on activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and individuals actively involved in political and civic processes are aimed at intimidating them and provide grounds to believe that these assaults are part of a unified, coordinated campaign. This is further evidenced by the fact that investigative authorities have failed to identify or hold accountable a single perpetrator in any of the attacks.

Another indicator of the coordinated and systemic violence committed with a guarantee of impunity is the near-total unavailability of video footage capturing the attacks on activists. In almost every case, official agencies explain that nearby cameras were either malfunctioning or not recording and storing footage. Such explanations are, of course, unconvincing—especially given the large number of surveillance cameras on building façades in central areas of the city, whether installed by public or private entities. Moreover, in cases where law enforcement seeks to hold protest participants accountable, video recordings are at the very least available and included in the case materials. This raises serious doubts that the real reason behind the lack of investigation into attacks on activists is not the absence of evidence, but the deliberate failure to collect it—or its destruction.

In light of all the above, the Social Justice Center calls on representatives of Georgian Dream and law enforcement officers acting on their directives to immediately cease the campaign of terror against civic activists and to investigate all documented cases of persecution and violence committed against them.

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