Georgian prosecutors charged three men over an August 2024 incident in which opposition politician Nika Melia, a co-chair of the Ahali party and one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change, was assaulted while speaking to journalists during an election campaign event in Samtredia, a town in western Georgia, when a man punched him in the head, triggering a wider brawl.
All three were charged under Article 162¹ of Georgia’s Criminal Code, which covers “violence during an election campaign event.” However, while only one of the men is accused of assaulting Melia, the other two were members of Melia’s entourage and are accused of retaliatory violence under the same article. Ahali denounced the case, which has resurfaced nearly two years after the incident, as “absurd.”
In an August 9 statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia said that on August 11, 2024, during the opening event of Ahali’s office in Samtredia, a man identified as Sulkhan-Saba Nikoleishvili struck Melia in the head, “inflicting physical pain” on the politician.
“During the incident, Nikanor [Nika] Melia’s associates, Gabriel Kobaidze and Tsotne Mirtskhulava, responded with physical violence against Sulkhan-Saba Nikoleishvili, as a result of which the latter experienced pain and sustained a minor injury,” the statement added.
The court has yet to rule on the pre-trial measure of restraint.
According to Ahali, Mirtskhulava is a party member, while Kobaidze is a guard for the party’s co-chair. Denouncing the charges, the party said in an August 9 statement: “The absurdity of the case is further underscored by the fact that the offense provided for under Article 162 Prima concerns violence committed during a pre-election campaign event — violence that was, in fact, perpetrated [only] by an assailant sent by Georgian Dream.”
“Reviving this case years later serves to intimidate and silence those who are critical of the government, an approach that, evidently, is not working,” it added.
The case comes as Melia has been imprisoned for more than a year following convictions in multiple cases and faces another “sabotage” case involving eight opposition politicians accused of “crimes committed against the state.”
