Day: August 19, 2025
Georgian police arrested 37 people across the country over the past three days for what the Interior Ministry said was the illegal purchase, storage, and carrying of large quantities of firearms and ammunition. The offenses carry a prison term of up to seven years.
According to the Interior Ministry, the arrests followed operative actions and investigative activities, during which police seized multiple types of firearms and ammunition after searching apartments, buildings, and vehicles under court orders.
“For the protection of public order and security, MIA employees are working nationwide, carrying out patrols around the clock,” Davit Kiknadze, director of the MIA’s Central Criminal Police Department, said during a briefing on August 19.
The Ministry attached footage showing different types of firearms and ammunition allegedly seized during the raids.
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Irakli Mukhatgverdeli, a now-former police officer accused of threatening Anastasia Zinovkina, a Russian citizen, with rape during her detention on drug charges, is himself facing separate criminal charges for firing shots from a car, Publika reported.
According to the outlet, which cited the confirmation from the Prosecutor’s Office, Mukhadgverdeli is accused of firing several shots from a gun into the oncoming traffic while driving in Tbilisi on May 24. He was reportedly arrested the next day, May 25, and remanded in pretrial custody on May 27, before his release on bail of GEL 10,000 (about USD 3,700) on June 30.
Mukhatgverdeli has been a key witness in the trial of Zinovkina, 31, and her partner, Artem Gribul, 25, a Russian couple who were detained on December 17 and face eight years to life in prison for the purchase and possession of drugs they say were planted on them by police. They have linked their arrest to their participation in Georgia’s pro-EU protests that erupted late last November.
Mukhatgverdeli, who, the Interior Ministry confirmed to Publika, is no longer employed in the police following his prosecution, was among the officers involved in the detention and searches. He has testified against the couple in court.
In her testimonies, Zinovkina has repeatedly accused Mukhatgverdeli of misconduct, including making rape threats against the defendant.
“If you again turn your head this way, I will rape you,” Zinovkina recalled Mukhatgverdeli’s lines during the August 14 hearing, according to Publika records. “Specifically, he systematically pointed out that he would rape me, he was threatening me … if you don’t do this, if you won’t give me your phone password, your keys – here, that’s what I will do.”
Zinovkina added that the officer emphasized his threats by opening and closing his zipper and warned that he would “punish” her.
On August 19, following the Publika report, Formula TV channel also aired footage it said was from their May coverage showing the scenes from the shooting incident allegedly involving Mukhatgverdeli. During the August 19 hearing, defense lawyers motioned to attach the reports about Mukhatgverdeli’s prosecution to the case files, and the court granted the request.
The trial of Zinovkina and Gribul is one of several drug-related cases tied to the ongoing protests. Others arrested on similar charges include Nika Katsia, Giorgi Akhobadze, Tedo Abramovi, and Anton Chechin. Akhobadze and Abramovi were recently acquitted and released, the only two not-guilty verdicts so far among protest-related detentions since last November. The remaining four are awaiting their verdicts.
Observers have highlighted troubling patterns in drug-related cases, including charges filed without neutral witnesses or video evidence of searches.
In Zinovkina and Gribul’s case, no video footage of the individual searches during detention exists either, with prosecutors claiming the physical resistance of the defendants during the search made filming impossible. Prosecutors, however, insist neutral witnesses were present, citing the testimonies of two interpreters involved in the detentions and the couple’s landlord, who, they claim, was present during the apartment search where additional narcotic substance was seized.
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