Giorgi Tsulaia, a protester who faced an administrative charge of “obstructing pedestrian traffic” for rallying on a sidewalk, said Tbilisi City Court Judge Dacit Makaradze dismissed his case – the first decision under newly tightened protest rules on pedestrian zones, as dozens of similar cases await rulings.
“They called me from the Tbilisi City Court. Judge Davit Makaridze deliberated and terminated the ‘sidewalk’ case against me,” Tsulaia wrote in a January 8 Facebook post, adding, “All attempts to neutralize and intimidate those fighting for Georgia’s European and better future will fail.”
Tsulaia faced up to 15 days in detention under December legislative amendments that further tightened protest rules by mandating administrative detention for those who obstruct not only traffic but also the “movement of people.”
Dozens of other protesters were charged in similar cases in December, but their court hearings, initially scheduled for December, were postponed to January as the court has yet to issue first rulings in these cases. Tsulaia is the first to report the dismissal of the charges.
Georgia’s Public Defender Levan Ioseliani said on December 24 that his office plans to challenge the amendments adopted by the Georgian Dream parliament throughout 2025 to crack down on protests in the Constitutional Court, citing, among others, proportionality concerns.
Ioseliani criticized the introduction of mandatory detention for road blockages, arguing that it strips judges of alternative administrative sanctions and effectively mandates imprisonment. He warned that measures initially aimed at suppressing specific protests, such as the daily rallies on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue, risk being broadly applied to other groups and forms of assembly.
For nearly a year, protesters had daily blocked Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue in front of parliament as a symbolic act of resistance against what they call the “Russian regime.” In October, Georgian Dream further tightened already strict anti-protest laws, making acts such as blocking roads and covering faces punishable by immediate detention rather than fines, with repeat acts subject to criminal liability carrying sentences of up to one year in prison.
In the initial weeks of enforcing the new laws since October, over a hundred people were arrested on administrative charges, while one was detained in November and charged criminally for a “repeated act.”
Starting in early November, police physically pushed protesters onto the sidewalks to prevent road blockages, prompting demonstrators to switch to evening downtown marches as an alternative form of protest. Detentions, however, continued during these marches.
The December amendments, in addition to introducing detention for obstructing the movement of people, also imposed a mandatory requirement to notify police in advance of planned assemblies.
Failure to notify police, comply with such instructions, or clear roads or sidewalks upon police order may result in administrative detention of up to 15 to 20 days, while repeat offenses may carry criminal liability punishable by up to one year in prison.
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