Ex-PM Gakharia charged over 2019 protests crackdown, checkpoint episode, faces up to 13 years in prison

Georgia’s former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, who currently chairs the For Georgia opposition party, has been charged in two criminal cases related to events that took place in 2019 - the “Gavrilov’s Night” protests in Tbilisi and the Chorchana checkpoint incident near the occupation line with Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

At a briefing on Wednesday, the Prosecutor General’s Office said the charges involved articles of the Criminal Code that carry penalties of up to 13 years’ imprisonment. The prosecutors would seek pre-trial detention from the Tbilisi City Court. 

The first case concerns the 20-21 June 2019 protests in Tbilisi, which erupted after Russian MP Sergei Gavrilov addressed the Georgian Parliament from the Speaker’s chair during a session of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy. The scene sparked massive public outrage amid the Russian occupation of two Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali. 

Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside Parliament, demanding the resignation of key officials. Police used tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons to disperse the crowd, injuring several hundred people. The crackdown was later condemned by opposition groups and human rights organizations as excessive.

At the time, Gakharia was serving as Interior Minister, making him directly responsible for the law enforcement response to the protests - an episode now under renewed legal scrutiny.

The second episode involves the Chorchana checkpoint, a police post established in August 2019 near Georgia’s occupation line with the Russian-occupied region of Tskhinvali. The move, initiated under Gakharia’s leadership, drew sharp objections from the de facto authorities in Tskhinvali, who claimed the post “created threats to their safety”. 

While some in Georgia praised the checkpoint as a step to reinforce national security, a later parliamentary investigation found that the decision might have been taken without full interagency coordination, potentially heightening tensions.