DFWatch staff 
TBILISI, July 15 – Georgian film director Goga Khaindrava has won a defamation case against the opposition-leaning TV channel Formula and says he will use the compensation money to create a fund for people who say they have been targeted by “media terror.” Tbilisi City Court ruled in Khaindrava’s favor on Tuesday, July 14. Judge … Read more
TBILISI, July 11 – Georgian opposition politician Aleko Elisashvili has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of attempting to commit a terrorist act. Tbilisi City Court found Elisashvili guilty on Friday. The judge sentenced him to 13 years of imprisonment. The case concerns an incident inside the chancellery building of … Read more
TBILISI, July 10 – A 52-year-old man has been found dead inside a car in southern Georgia after being missing for four days, Rezonansi reported on Thursday. The body was discovered in Aspindza, near the local landfill. Aspindza is a small municipality in Georgia’s southern Samtskhe-Javakheti region. According to a relative of the deceased man, … Read more
TBILISI, July 10 – Georgia’s United National Movement (UNM) is trying to open its reform process to people who do not want to formally join the party, journalist Nana Zhorzholiani said on Thursday. Zhorzholiani spoke to TV Pirveli about changes planned inside the UNM and a new “reformers’ council” announced by jailed former president Mikheil … Read more
TBILISI, July 10 – Two people were killed and two others injured in a road accident at Rikoti, one of Georgia’s key mountain pass routes, on Thursday. According to information cited by Interpressnews, a car travelling at high speed crashed into a concrete barrier. Eyewitnesses said ambulance crews and police were mobilized at the scene. … Read more
TBILISI, July 10 – A 25-year-old man was killed in a road accident in eastern Georgia’s Lagodekhi municipality on Thursday, Interpressnews reported. One other person was seriously injured in the crash and was taken to hospital. According to available information cited by the agency, the young man was travelling by car with a friend near … Read more
TBILISI, July 10 – A high-profile “sabotage” trial against eight Georgian opposition figures is moving quickly through Tbilisi City Court, with prosecutors citing witness testimony and an audio recording, while the defendants call the case political persecution. The prosecution’s claim is that opposition leaders tried to urge protesters to break through police barriers and into … Read more
TBILISI, July 8 – Former Georgian prime minister Giorgi Gakharia has accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of failing to defend Georgia’s national interests abroad, saying his own team is trying to do that work at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session in The Hague. Gakharia, who now leads the opposition party Gakharia for Georgia, wrote … Read more
TBILISI, July 8 – Georgia’s parliament speaker has warned the European Union not to create second-class members if it changes voting rules for future entrants. Shalva Papuashvili made the comment on Tuesday after a meeting in Serbia with parliament speakers from EU candidate countries, where they discussed a new initiative that would restrict veto rights … Read more
TBILISI, July 7 – Georgia’s hate speech crackdown is moving ahead, with courts issuing new penalties in cases involving public insults against political and private figures. Kutaisi City Court has fined Davit Svanadze 2,000 GEL (USD 750) after finding that he insulted Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, Rezonansi reported on Tuesday. Kaladze is one of the … Read more