Day: October 9, 2025
Tbilisi City Court sent 13 people detained in connection with the October 4 election-day unrest to pretrial detention. The rulings were issued on October 8 in three separate groups.
In the first hearing, Judge Lela Maridashvili ordered pretrial detention for Tornike Mchedlishvili, Abo Naveriani, Eva Shashviashvili, and Davit Sturua. In the second, Judge Pikria Sikturashvili ordered the same for Davit Zhgenti, Aleksandre Gogoladze, Kakhaber Mzhavanadze, and Giorgi Rurua. In the final hearing, Judge Nana Shamatava ordered pretrial detention for Beka Bachavariani, Vakho Pitskhelauri, Manuchar Mikeladze, Aleksandre Khabeishvili, and Sergo Megrelishvili.
All were detained on October 6 and later charged under two articles of Georgia’s Criminal Code: participation in group violence (Article 222) and attempted seizure of a facility of strategic or special importance (Article 320). They face six to nine years in prison.
A total of 36 people have been arrested so far over the alleged involvement in the October 4 events in Georgia’s capital, when part of a large rally, whose organizers said its goal was to “peacefully overthrow” the Georgian Dream government, attempted to storm the presidential palace in downtown Tbilisi at the organizers’ call, but were pushed back and dispersed by riot police. Georgian Dream officials described the events as a foreign-orchestrated coup attempt and pledged a harsh response.
Five organizers were arrested in the early hours of October 5 and sent to pretrial detention on October 7. Another 13 people, who were placed in pretrial detention yesterday, had been arrested on October 6. The Interior Ministry announced the arrests of five more people on October 7, twelve on October 8, and one more on the morning of October 9. All have been identified by their full names, including the most recent detainee, Genadi Kupreishvili.
Also Read:
- 08/10/2025 – Kobakhidze Accuses West of ‘Indirectly’ Backing ‘Overthrow and Violence’ After October 4 Unrest
- 05/10/2025 – SSSG Says Arms Cache Found, Links to October 4 Unrest, Ukraine
- 05/10/2025 – MIA to Treat Upcoming Gatherings as ‘Continuation’ of October 4 Attempt at Government
- 05/10/2025 – Kobakhidze Doubles Down on the Narrative of Retribution
Very pleased to meet with 🇱🇺 PM @LucFrieden in the margins of the #GlobalGateway forum.
We discussed our expanding 🇦🇲–🇱🇺 partnership and the broader relations with the 🇪🇺.
I also briefed him on the Washington historic Peace Summit and the implementation of ensuing agreements.— Nikol Pashinyan (@NikolPashinyan) Oct 9, 2025
Very pleased to meet with 🇱🇺 PM @LucFrieden in the margins of the #GlobalGateway forum.
We discussed our expanding 🇦🇲–🇱🇺 partnership and the broader relations with the 🇪🇺.
I also briefed him on the historic Washington Peace Summit and the implementation of ensuing agreements.q— Nikol Pashinyan (@NikolPashinyan) Oct 9, 2025
U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Jim Risch (R-ID), ranking member and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, welcomed the State Department’s move to summon the Georgian ambassador and urged the Donald Trump administration to consider recent developments in the country “before pursuing any change to the bilateral relationship.”
“Let us be clear: it is Georgian Dream, not the United States, that is undermining Georgia’s democracy and ability to determine their future,” the Senators said in an October 8 statement, calling “unacceptable” the Georgian Dream government’s targeting of former U.S. government employees “by making baseless allegations that they are undermining Georgia’s government.”
The statement followed the State Department’s summoning of Georgian Ambassador Tamar Taliashvili over remarks by Georgia’s State Security Service chief, Mamuka Mdinaradze, who said that the embassy in Thailand – later identified by his reference to “American taxpayers’ money” – was funding people in Georgia “for anti-Chinese purposes,” but that the funds were instead used to support “radicals against the government for revolutionary purposes.”
The State Department said it “requested a meeting” with Taliashvili to deliver “serious objections to statements by Georgian government officials amplifying false media reports mischaracterizing routine U.S. government financial transfers to former U.S. employees.”
“We welcome the Department of State’s decision to summon the Georgian Ambassador to address these disturbing developments,” the Senators said, “And we urge the Trump Administration to consider recent actions by the Georgian government before pursuing any change to the bilateral relationship.” Shaheen and Risch extended “unwavering, bipartisan support to the Georgian people who simply wish to claim their right to self-determination.”
The Senators also said they are “increasingly concerned” by what they called the “deteriorating political situation in Georgia” and the GD’s “troubling actions” following the October 4 local elections.
“Prime Minister Kobakhidze’s decision to outlaw opposition parties and jail their leaders is egregious, undemocratic and yet another indication that Georgian Dream is wholly uninterested in pursuing a path toward normalized political dialogue,” the statement noted.
“Politically-motivated investigations and intimidation of civil society leaders, particularly those who have worked with the United States government and testified before our committee, are an attempt to silence dissent in a country with a proud history of speaking truth to power,” the statement further said.
Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on October 9 slammed the country’s international partners, including the U.S. and the EU, for “failing to condemn or distance themselves” from the election-day unrest in Tbilisi, saying they “indirectly yet clearly” backed “overthrow and violence.”
Kobakhidze also said during the same briefing that the U.S. State Department should prove “that it acts not under the influence of the ‘deep state,’ but in accordance with the genuine interests of the American people,” adding that “the simplest proof of this would be to condemn the attempt to overthrow the government.”
Also Read:
- 07/10/2025 – Kobakhidze Offers Reset With West, Threatens to End Rustaveli Protests
- 07/10/2025 – GD Says Expelling Ambassadors ‘Counterproductive’ as MFA Briefs Diplomats
- 05/10/2025 – Kobakhidze Doubles Down on the Narrative of Retribution
- 26/09/2025 – Kavelashvili Says He Spoke With Trump About Restarting Relations at UN Dinner
- 02/12/2024 – Senators Shaheen, Risch Express Concern Over Violence in Georgia, Call on U.S. Sanctions Against GD Gov’t