Several protesters reported being summoned by a court over administrative proceedings for “obstructing movement of people” during a December 17 sidewalk rally in Tbilisi, in what appears to be the first direct enforcement of stricter laws that extend protest restrictions to pedestrian areas.
They now face up to 15 days of administrative detention, with their court hearings scheduled for December 25 and 26.
“A new wave of intimidation and repression has begun,” Ani Akhmeteli, a protester, wrote on Facebook on December 24, publishing copies of the police report. “Today I received a call from the City Court, accusing me of violating Article 174¹, paragraph 10 of the Code of Administrative Offences,” Akhmeteli noted, referring to the amendments adopted in December and imposing restrictions on protesting on the sidewalk, among others.
A copy of the police report published by Akhmeteli shows her being accused of “deliberately obstructing people’s traffic” during the parliament rally on December 17, minutes after police issued a “warning.” According to the report, video evidence “shows a citizen who at 20:35 stands on the sidewalk and obstructs the movement of people.”
Daily parliament rallies on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue have been largely taking place on sidewalks after police started pushing demonstrators off the road in November and detained over a hundred demonstrators for “blocking the road.”
The ruling Georgian Dream party, however, fast-tracked further restrictions in December, introducing an advance notice rule for planned rallies and limiting rallies that “obstruct” the people’s traffic, among others. The amendments mandate police to issue binding instructions changing the location or route of planned assemblies.
Failure to notify police, comply with binding instructions, or clear the road or sidewalks upon police order may result in administrative detention of up to 15–20 days, and criminal liability carrying a sentence of up to one year if repeated.
Following the law’s entry into force, police officials warned protesters in person and later, on December 17, ordered them to disperse from the sidewalk in front of the parliament, but protesters have ignored the warnings.
On December 22, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued binding formal warnings to protest organizers, instructing them to confine rallies on Rustaveli Avenue to the parliament stairs and “adjacent areas” and “not to obstruct the movement of transport or people.”
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