In a further escalation of the ongoing attacks against civil society in Georgia, TransparencyInternational Georgia’s director, Eka Gigauri, was on 17 September questioned at the request of, and by, the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office in an ongoing political investigation on sabotage, assisting a foreign country in activities intended to undermine Georgia’s state interests, and collecting or supplying financial resources with the knowledge they may be used for offenses against the State. These are extremely serious crimes under the Georgian Criminal Code and carry penalties of up to 15 years of imprisonment. Transparency International EU (TI EU) deplores this blatant silencing of a critical voice in Georgia.
This marks the latest iteration of an attack wave that began several weeks ago, when the Prosecutor’s office arrested the accounts and summoned for questioning directors of several active civil society organizations (Civil Society Foundation (CSF), International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), Defenders of Democracy, Georgian Democratic Initiative (GDI), Sapari, Social Justice Center (SJC)) under the charges named above.
These accusations are completely unfounded and speak to an ongoing politicisation of the Georgian justice system. NGOs in Georgia are currently restricted from receiving any new grants, derogatorily labelled as ‘agents of foreign principals’ and have been put under investigations for not registering voluntarily as foreign agents. This case and the investigations serve only the political interests of the ruling party and have no legal basis.
This repression forms part of the continued assault on Georgian democracy, which began with mass state-sponsored violence and arbitrary detentions of protesters at the end of 2024. It followed fraudulent elections in October and a ‘hand-break-pull’ on Georgia’s EU integration in November 2024.
Georgia remains part of the EU’s neighbourhood. The overwhelming majority of Georgian citizens desire EU membership. Now, more than ever, is the time for the EU to stand up for Georgian citizens, and demonstrate that repression will not be tolerated.
TI EU demands the EU institutions and EU Member States urgently condemn this latest attack unequivocally, and utilise all available instruments to ensure the effective protection of civil society organisations and their representatives from the blatant attempts to silence pro-democracy, and pro-EU voices in Georgia.
