Georgia: Judicial harassment and home searches targeting human rights defenders and activists

The Observatory has been informed about the searches at the homes of civil society organisations’ leaders, including Mr. Aleko Tskitishvili, the Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, a member organisation of FIDH. Human Rights Center is a founding member of the Human Rights House Tbilisi.

On the morning of 29 April 2025, Mr. Aleko Tskitishvili was stopped near his home in Tbilisi and searched by representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office. Subsequently, searches were conducted in his home, and his work computer, phone, and memory sticks, as well as notebooks, legal documents and other materials concerning the Human Rights Center were seized. In parallel, searches were conducted in the homes of pregnant activist Mariam Bajelidze and Mariam Geguchadze from the Shame Movement, an organisation that is currently inactive, as well as journalist Nanuka Zhorzholiani, founder of Nanuka’s Fund, Prosperity Georgia representative Lasha Arveladze, and the founder of Foundation For Each Other 24/7, Guga Khelaia.

According to the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office, the searches were authorised by the Tbilisi City Court and were carried out to obtain relevant evidence of “acts of “sabotage”, “foreign aiding and abetting hostile activities”, as well as the “mobilisation of funds for activities aimed against the constitutional order and the foundations of national security of Georgia” (Articles 318, 319 and 321 of the Criminal Code of Georgia). In March 2025, the Office of Georgia’s Prosecutor General had already issued a statement in which it announced that it had been carrying out a criminal investigation into the financial and legal support provided by five civil society organisations (Human Rights House Tbilisi, Shame Movement, Nanuka’s Fund, Prosperity Georgia and Fund for Each Other 24/7) to individuals who had participated in the protests, and froze the organisations’ bank accounts.

The Observatory recalls that protests erupted throughout Georgia in November 2024 following the government’s announcement to suspend the negotiations over Georgia’s accession to the European Union, which came shortly after the re-election of the ruling Georgia Dream party in an unfair election. While the protests remained overwhelmingly peaceful, the police used water cannons, and tear gas, to disperse the crowds, as well as excessive force and mistreatment during transportation, resulting in numerous injuries to protesters and over 480 arbitrary arrests, some of them amounting to inhuman treatment and, possibly, torture. The Observatory notes with grave concern that the five organisations targeted by the investigation have been providing crucial financial support to protesters, helping them with payments of administrative fines, legal assistance and representation, as well as with medical and psychological support.

The Observatory strongly condemns the ongoing judicial harassment, including the searches, against human rights defenders and activists, which aims to punish them and criminalise their legitimate human rights activities in support of victims of police brutality and arbitrary detentions. The Observatory also calls on the Georgian authorities to immediately stop the investigations, to unconditionally revoke the freezing of the bank accounts of Human Rights House Tbilisi, Shame Movement and other civil society organisations, and to respect in all circumstances the internationally recognised rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly.