TBILISI, DFWatch–Activists rallied in Tbilisi on Wednesday against the apparent abduction and return to Azerbaijan of an investigative journalist who had criticized the Aliyev regime. Journalists and rights activists rallied outside the government office […]
Afgan Mukhtali TBILISI, DFWatch–An investigative journalist who fled Azerbaijan and sought asylum in neighboring Georgia was abducted by unknown men in Tbilisi on Monday and taken across the border to his home country. Journalist Afgan Mukhtali is now being held in Baku, […]
Edisher Karchava. (ambebi.ge) TBILISI, DFWatch–A lawyer for the Georgian church claimed on Monday that there is a plot to assassinate the head of the church, involving high-level clerics. One of the clerics implicated in the attempt on Patriarch’s life is Metropolitan Petre Tsaava, according to […]
Elene Khoshtaria was nominated by European Georgia as candidate for Tbilisi mayor. (Facebook.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s second largest opposition party named a woman as its candidate for Tbilisi Mayor on Saturday. The European Dream party congress nominated Elene Khoshtaria (37) as mayoral candidate as political parties are gearing up for the local elections. […]
Luke Coffey To assess the visit of NATO Parliamentary assembly to Tbilisi, Georgia, discuss future of Transatlantic relations and Pres. Trump’s visit to Europe Voice of America’s Anna Kalandadze spoke to Luke Coffey, Director, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy, […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia has detained a manager of a private school in what appears to be a case of pressure exerted by Turkey on Georgian authorities to crack down on institutions associated with the exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen. Mustafa Emre Cabuk, quality manager […]
Lasha Tordia (far left) apparently brandishing a pistol at PAM Club last December. TBILISI, DFWatch–A new video of a public auditor pointing a pistol in a bar last December further undermined his claim that a recent fight with an ex-prosecutor was corruption related. The video surfaced on the Internet on Wednesday, and shows state auditor Lasha Tordia […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–The Ministry of Internal Affairs released a surveillance video and witness testimony on Monday which appeared to undermine claims by the country’s top public auditor that a recent bar fight was connected to a corruption probe. But the low resolution […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–Prosecutors in Georgia have dropped a case against the brother of a judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) who said the investigation was connected to her work. None Tsotsoria (center) is a judge currently serving at the European Court of Human Rights. The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia (POG) called off the probe […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–A high profile trial of a Georgian priest accused of planning to murder the patriarch’s personal secretary got off to a dramatic start Friday as the defendant left the courtroom in protest and asked his lawyers to do the same. This was the first hearing […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–The screening of a gay pride film in a Tbilisi park had to be canceled Friday evening after someone called in a bomb threat. LGBT people, rights activists and others, mainly youth, had gathered in Mziuri Park for a screening of the British historical comedy […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–A Georgian judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) suspects that a police raid against her brother’s apartment was connected to her work. “I have reason to believe that [the police raid] is related to my work at the European Court of Human Rights. […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–Separatist authorities in Georgia’s breakaway region Abkhazia signed an agreement with Russia on Thursday, establishing a joint Russian-Abkhaz coordination center in Sokhumi to combat organized crime and other serious crimes. The joint […]
Nona Tsotsoria (center) at a meeting with Supreme Court judges in Latvia. (Photo published by the Latvian government.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The opposition in Georgia claims the police raided the flat of a judge’s brother to put pressure on the judge after an unfavorable decision in the ECHR. Police carried out a raid Thursday night in the flat of brother of a judge who currently represents Georgia […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–A public meeting in Tbilisi on Monday to discuss a set of constitutional amendments was interrupted by two different groups of protesters. The head of the organizing committee now says they will extend the hearing process with a number of extra […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–Four years after a mob of thousands of people violently attacked them, Georgia’s LGBT community needed strict security to observe The International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) on Wednesday. Several […]
Herbert Salber (left). (Photo published by South Ossetia’s de facto president.) TBILISI, DFWatch–A European Union official congratulating the leader of a Russian-backed breakaway republic on winning the election has caused a diplomatic scandal in Tbilisi. Herbert Salber, a German diplomat who is the EU’s special representative to South Caucasus […]
Sandro Girgvliani was 28 years old when he was murdered in January, 2006. Irakli Okruashvili. (GPB.) TBILISI, DFWatch–A former minister claimed Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili protected several high ranking officials from prosecution as the high-profile trial about the murder of a young bank employee in Georgia eleven years ago continued in Tbilisi on Monday. […]
Otar Partskhaladze. (Rustavi 2.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The head of Georgia’s state audit office refused to be questioned by police on Monday, after alleging that a former chief prosecutor attacked him at a bar Friday night. Lasha Tordia excused himself on the grounds of his poor health condition after Friday’s incident […]
“Georgia is not a post-Soviet state. It is a European state […] So, looking at a free trade agreement with the U.S. is kind of a maturing of the relationship.” To assess the recent visit of Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili to the U.S., Voice of America’s (VOA) Anna Kalandadze interviewed British diplomat and a political observer Alexandra Hall Hall. […]
Lasha Tordia. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The head of Georgia’s State Audit Office claims an investigation into a land plot scheme was the reason he was physically assaulted by a former chief prosecutor and his associates at a bar in Tbilisi Friday night. General Auditor Lasha Tordia (37) said he was attacked […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–The city hall in Georgia’s second largest city Batumi has rejected an application for permission to build a second mosque in the 150,000 strong city. In the largely Muslim city there has been a several decades long conflict about whether to allow a second mosque. […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–Six former guards at the notorious Penitentiary No 8 in Tbilisi have been detained for alleged torture of prisoners during the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili. Legal proceedings have been launched against former Head of Legal Regimen of the same facility, […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–A rain-swelled river on Thursday cut off the only road to five villages in the northern part of Georgia, leaving the inhabitants isolated from the rest of the world. The river Vedura swelled after several days of hard rain in the Upper Svaneti region. […]
In this photo from 2006, Yuri Luzhkov (right) is seen in Abkhazia with Abkhaz and Russian politicians. (Alexander Popov/TASS.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia has placed the former mayor of Moscow on its ‘black list’ of people barred from entering the country. Yuri Luzhkov was briefly in Georgia last weekend and the opposition called for his prosecution for violating a 2008 law. When Luzhkov’s tourist trip became […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–Three people were detained in Tbilisi on Tuesday during a protest in response to a mining accident that took four lives earlier the same day. The protesters from student group Auditorium #115 and trade union activists gathered in front of the […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–Two members of the notorious Russian motorcycle gang Night Wolves turned up in Tbilisi’s Vake Park on Tuesday for the May 9 commemoration of victory over Nazism in World War II, despite the gang’s members being banned from entering Georgia. […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–An otherwise uneventful tourist visit to Georgia by the former mayor of Moscow was interrupted by opposition calls for him to be ‘punished’. Word spread of Yuri Luzhkov’s visit to Georgia after priest Serafim Bit-Kharibi posted photos […]
Georgia needs a parliament that is more pluralistic, not less. Rather than locking in Georgia’s democratic gains, the draft constitution appears likely to benefit Georgian Dream, writes Joseph Larsen, analyst at Georgian Institute of Politics. The Georgian Dream (GD) […]
Tamar Chugoshvili is Parliament’s First Deputy Chairperson. In 2010-2012 she was the Chairperson Georgia’s of Young Lawyers’ Association. In total, 33 amendments have been made to the Constitution of Georgia, adopted in 1995, however, only two rounds of these amendments have been of fundamental importance […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–A Georgian priest accused of planning to poison an adviser to the patriarch is to remain in pre-trial detention. That was decided at a hearing in the Tbilisi City Court on Friday. The judge rejected all the around a dozen pleas by arch priest […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–Nearly 50 Russian pro-Kremlin bikers were stopped at the border on Wednesday as they were trying to enter Georgia in connection with an annual tour to commemorate the end of World War II. The bikers were not given an explanation for why they were denied entry, […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian opposition groups said Monday that the country’s democratic development is being reversed unless a set of constitutional amendments is stopped. The groups demand a referendum about the changes. In a declaration, the opposition listed eight […]
