An attestation process has been conducted to assess the professional competence and skills of teachers at music and art schools operating under the Culture Ministry, Azernews reports.
Day: July 2, 2025
Individuals who fail to pay fines for four administrative offenses — petty hooliganism, disobeying police, insulting public officials, and violating protest rules such as blocking roads or wearing face coverings — will be sent to detention if they repeat the offenses.
These offenses are among the most commonly cited against demonstrators participating in anti–Georgian Dream protests.
The rule changes are part of amendments to Georgia’s Law on Administrative Offenses, passed by the Georgian Dream parliament on July 2, following two days of accelerated deliberations during extraordinary sessions.
Fines for these offenses vary and increase with repeated violations, but generally range around GEL 5,000 (about USD 1,800). If an individual fails to pay a previous fine and is found guilty of the same offense again, the court will no longer have the option to impose another fine and will be required to order detention.
The maximum administrative detention period in Georgia is 60 days, extended from 15 days in February.
The amendments also change the appeals process for fines. Instead of appealing to the Interior Ministry, individuals must now appeal directly to the courts. Some say the change will ease the ministry’s workload — particularly the large number of appeals over road blockage fines — but will add pressure on the judiciary.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs was given authority to impose fines for administrative offenses in February. Since then, citizens have been appealing these fines directly to the ministry.
“If the accounting and backlog of fines was the MIA’s job before, now the review of administrative offenses will fall to seven judges,” lawyer Saba Brachveli wrote on Facebook, suggesting the state system is shifting the burden onto the courts to handle a growing caseload.
“Those of you who have appealed to the Interior Ministry and have not yet received a response, this new rule will apply to your cases as well,” lawyer Nika Simonishvili said in a Facebook post. He added, “The Interior Ministry will no longer review your appeal, and all these cases will be sent to the court 10 days after the law comes into force.”
Although the exact number is unknown, media estimates suggest hundreds have been fined for blocking roads since protests began on November 28, 2024, after the Georgian Dream government announced it was abandoning the country’s EU accession process. The ongoing resistance has since blocked Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue in front of the parliament building daily for more than seven months now.
The fine for road blockage was GEL 500 before December, until the Georgian Dream parliament increased it tenfold to GEL 5,000 (about USD 1,800), more than twice the average monthly income in Georgia.
In mid-March, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, a human rights group, said road blockage fines since November 28 stood at GEL 2 million (about USD 715,000). Watchdog groups have widely criticized the hefty fines as a repressive tool used by the government to suppress protests.
Also Read:
- 06/06/2025 – Georgian Dream to Sue Critics Over “Insults” on Social Media
- 31/05/2025 – Court Sends Students to 12-Day Detention for Allegedly Insulting MP
- 15/03/2025 – ODIHR Urgent Opinion on GD’s Controversial Legislative Changes
- 03/03/2025 – Venice Commission Urgent Opinion on Code of Administrative Offenses and Law on Assemblies and Demonstrations
The combined nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member states reached approximately $2.4 trillion in 2023, representing 2.3% of the global GDP, Mammad Musayev, President of the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs (Employers) Organizations of Azerbaijan (ASK), announced during his speech at the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Business Forum held in Shusha, Azernews reports.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry has been granted authority to inspect foreigners’ homes and workplaces and enter private property, as the ruling Georgian Dream government tightens immigration rules and escalates rhetoric against illegal migration.
Legislative amendments to the country’s Law on Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, adopted on July 2 after accelerated deliberations during two days of extraordinary sessions in the GD parliament, empower a MIA–authorized body to carry out such inspections “with the aim to expose foreigners residing in Georgia without legal grounds or/and to check the living place of foreigners or their travel documents.”
Over the past week, the Interior Ministry reported detaining 20 foreigners in two “special immigration control activities.” All have been slated for expulsion from the country. GD MP Tornike Cheishvili said before the vote that, according to the latest Interior Ministry data, 525 foreigners were expelled from Georgia in the first six months of 2025 for living in the country illegally. He claimed the figure is about three times higher than during the same period last year.
Under the new rules, inspections may be conducted based on a city court order or with the consent of the property owner or employer. However, in “urgent cases,” when “a delay may result in a foreigner hiding away or destroying or hiding a travel document,” inspections may proceed without a court order, provided one is obtained within 24 hours afterward.
The authorized body is permitted to “question individuals, verify their identities, conduct superficial inspections, and carry out other preventive and coercive measures provided under Georgian legislation,” the bill states. At workplaces, inspectors may request documents proving a foreigner’s legal right to work in Georgia.
“The fight against illegal migration and its prevention are important challenges related to the country’s security, public order, and regulation of the job market,” the bill’s explanatory note states, citing the need to “refine procedures” for identifying illegal migrants as the reason for the changes.
Earlier on June 26, the GD parliament adopted a legislative package that introduced expulsion and reentry bans for criminal and administrative offenses and increased fines for immigration-related violations, among other changes.
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The illegal purchase or possession of up to five grams of dried marijuana can now be punished by up to six years in prison in Georgia.
On July 2, the Georgian Dream parliament rubber-stamped the relevant legislative amendments to the country’s Criminal Code, placing marijuana and cannabis possession under the same category as other drugs. During deliberations, GD MP Archil Gorduladze noted that rules regarding consumption remain unchanged.
Concerns over stricter laws have grown following the accompanied changes to the Criminal Procedure Code that allow the identities of witnesses involved in covert investigative operations to remain fully secret, even when their testimony could lead to a guilty verdict. Critics fear that the GD is preparing to plant drugs on its opponents, leaving future defendants with fewer chances to prove their innocence.
“This is not about tightening drug policy – it’s about preparing the system for mass drug planting,” lawyer Saba Brachveli said in a Facebook post, adding, “Journalists won’t cover it, cameras won’t catch it, and now even the defense won’t be able to investigate it properly.”
Under the new rules, possession of larger amounts of marijuana — up to 70 grams — is punishable by five to eight years in prison. For particularly large quantities, defined as up to 250 grams of dried marijuana, the sentence can reach 20 years or life in prison.
The amendments also remove a clause that had excluded marijuana and cannabis from the list of substances triggering similar prison sentences for illegal manufacturing, production, transportation, or distribution. Marijuana and cannabis now fall under those provisions as well.
Sowing, planting, and cultivating cannabis will carry relatively smaller prison terms.
The changes come as Georgian Dream tightens its drug policy as part of its “uncompromised” fight against drug dealers. The one-party parliament on July 2 also banned private entities from carrying out opioid replacement therapies and importing psychotropic drugs into the country.
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