TBILISI, June 24 – Another group of people detained over Georgia’s October 4 unrest are set to leave prison after accepting plea deals.
A Georgian court on Wednesday found 13 people guilty over the events near the Atoneli presidential palace in Tbilisi. Twelve accepted plea agreements. One defendant, Manuchar Mikeladze, denied guilt and was sentenced to five years in prison.
October 4, 2025, a rally that began on Freedom Square, with calls for regime change, descended on the presidential residence on Atoneli Street in Tbilisi, where barriers were breached. The crowd was quickly subdued and dispersed by a large police operation, and the failure led to considerable soul-searching among the opposition, with many jailed.
With many October 4 detainees now being released under plea deals, it represents a new development in Georgia’s political fault lines, where “free the detainees” has been one of the opposition’s central demands after the disputed October, 2024, parliamentary election.
But the apparent thaw has not been a plain victory for the opposition. Many releases have come through plea agreements, meaning defendants must admit guilt in exchange for lighter punishment. Some detainees have refused, saying they will continue to fight the charges.
In Wednesday’s case, the 12 defendants who accepted plea deals received one year in prison and three years of suspended sentence. Their prison terms are counted from the day of detention, meaning 11 of them are expected to leave prison in about four months.
Saba Kordzaia received a different arrangement because he had already been convicted in another case and sentenced to one year and six months in prison. The court set the same real prison term for him in this case, plus a three-year suspended sentence.
Mikeladze, the only defendant in this group who refused a plea deal, received a five-year prison sentence.
During the announcement of the decision, another defendant said he no longer wanted a plea deal. But according to Interpressnews, he had already signed the document.
The 13 were charged with an attempted group seizure or blockade of strategic or specially important facilities, and with participation in group violence.
According to Interpressnews, this episode is the only one in which October 4 defendants received plea deals on different terms from other convicted detainees. Prosecutors argued that their actions injured specific people, including police officers.
