Two riot police officers have been sentenced to five years in prison each over spring 2024 violence against Levan Khabeishvili, an opposition United National Movement party member who is currently also serving a jail term on charges related to October 4 unrest.
Khabeishvili’s lawyer confirmed the information to Georgian media outlets, with the sentence handed down along with similar five-year jail sentences for other officers who were found guilty of violence against journalist Guram Rogava and protester Zviad Maisashvili during the initial days of pro-EU protests that erupted on November 28.
Khabeishvili was severely beaten by police during the April 30-May 1 protests against the Foreign Agents law. He sustained multiple bruises and lacerations on his face, a severely injured eye, and a broken nose, and went through a lengthy rehabilitation process.
Georgian prosecutors announced arresting three and identifying two more suspects already in jail in cases of Rogava, Maisashvili, and Khabeishvili in May. The prosecutors said at the time that those identified include three former and one current officers of the Interior Ministry’s Special Tasks Department.
All five suspects were charged with exceeding official authority with the use of violence, while the suspect in the Rogava case was additionally charged with unlawfully obstructing a journalist’s professional activities through violence.
The prosecutions and verdicts against five officers over police abuses cases followed longstanding concerns voiced by local and international human rights watchdogs, as well as Georgia’s public defender, over Georgia’s failure to hold a single police officer accountable despite numerous documented abuses against protesters during the 2024 dispersals and while jailing dozens of demonstrators on protest-related charges.
Georgian officials, while eventually acknowledging some of the abuses, attributed the lack of prosecutions to an inability to identify the uniformed suspects.
Victims in the case, as well as human rights advocates, reacted to the verdicts by expressing concerns over what they say is the continued lack of accountability for police abuse and the failure to adequately respond to the full scale of violations. Rogava also voiced distrust in the investigation.
Up to 167 people have been recognized as victims in protest-related police abuse cases of the past years, according to Tamar Oniani, head of Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, a key local human rights group.
Khabeishvili himself remains in jail after being sentenced in May to 2.5 years in prison on “sabotage” and coup incitement charges over his public statements made weeks and months ahead of the October 4, 2025, municipal elections, during which he announced “peaceful revolution.”
Also Read:
