Georgia’s fifth president fined over Mothers’ March protest

Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has imposed a ₾5,000 ($1,800) administrative fine on fifth president Salome Zourabichvili for taking part in a march marking Mother’s Day on 3 March.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Zourabichvili - who left office in December – shared a photograph of the violation report and declared she had been “baptised as an activist today”, adding: “I stood where all mothers should have stood – alongside the mothers of prisoners of conscience”.

The Interior Ministry claimed Zourabichvili breached Georgia’s Law on Gatherings and Manifestations by “blocking the road” during the so-called Mothers’ March, a procession that moved from Tbilisi’s Philharmonic Hall to parliament in support of people the organisers regard as political prisoners arrested during pro-European protests and their families. 

Dozens of demonstrators, journalists and opposition activists have received identical ₾5,000 penalties during the months-long street protests sparked by the ruling Georgian Dream party’s decision to suspend the country’s EU-accession bid until 2028 late last year.