Georgia: Arbitrary detention and judicial harassment of pro-democracy activist Nino Datashvili

GEO 005 / 0925 / OBS 052
Arbitrary detention /
Restriction to access healthcare /
Stigmatisation /
Judicial harassment
Georgia
2 September 2025

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Georgia.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been alerted about the arbitrary detention and judicial harassment of Ms Nino Datashvili, a pro-democracy activist and civic education teacher in Tbilisi, Georgia, and monitored the beginning of her trial, which took place in Tbilisi on 21 August 2025.

On 9 June 2025, Nino Datashvili attempted to attend the hearings of eight peaceful demonstrators in Tbilisi City Court: Zviad Tsetskhladze, Vepkhia Kasradze, Vasil Kadzelashvili, Giorgi Gorgadze, Irakli Miminoshvili, Insaf Aliyev, Tornike Goshadze, and Nikoloz Javakhishvili, who are still held in preventive detention, as part of a broader effort to silence the next generation of independent voices, including aspiring lawyers and pro-European integration human rights defenders in Georgia. After bailiffs prevented her from entering the courtroom, Ms Datashvili asked on what legal grounds they were acting, before being forcibly removed from the building by several men. The next day, an investigation was launched into the alleged assault on a bailiff of the Tbilisi City Court during the performance of his official duties.

On 20 June 2025, Ms Datashvili was arbitrarily arrested in the streets of Tbilisi and placed in custody following a decision by Tbilisi City Court Judge Lela Kaliche. If convicted, she faces up to seven years in prison under part 3 of Article 353 of Georgia’s Criminal Code, which pertains to resistance, threats, or violence against a police officer or another representative of the authorities.

On 2 August 2025, the Tbilisi City Court granted the prosecution’s motion to subject Ms Datashvili to a compulsory psychiatric examination, relying on a 2019 medical record that referred only to a spinal condition accompanied by “psycho-emotional lability”. The ruling authorised her forcible admission to a psychiatric institution for up to 20 days, despite the appeal and her doctor’s statement that he had never assessed her mental health and had only treated her spinal condition. The Court of Appeal upheld this decision, triggering public outcry from human rights defenders, psychiatrists, and experts, who denounced the measure as a form of political persecution. In response to the controversy, prosecutors arranged for experts from the L. Samkharauli Forensic Bureau to examine Ms Datashvili directly in prison, without informing her or her lawyers in advance. On 6 August 2025, these experts interviewed her in custody, raising concerns about lack of consent and procedural violations.

On 8 August, the Tbilisi City Court upheld the pre-trial detention of Ms Datashvili, citing “risks of absconding, witness tampering, and committing new crimes”.

On 21 August, the substantive hearing of the case began before the Tbilisi City Court. On this day, the prosecutor’s office presented a forensic medical examination report based on the interview conducted on 6 August, stating that Ms Datashvili does not have any mental health needs. However, the defense requested this report to be inadmissible on the grounds that Ms Datashvili had not been informed of the nature of this interview and therefore could not have given her informed consent to it. Ms Datashvili’s lawyers also stated that the charges of “Attack on a law enforcement officer during the performance of his official duties” under Article 353 of Georgia’s Criminal Code cannot withstand legal scrutiny, since the charge does not meet the criteria regarding personal safety of the bailiffs who first used physical force against her, before she attempted either to escape or to use her hands. Ms Datashvili’s actions were therefore merely an attempt to defend herself from the bailiffs’ use of force.The hearing is scheduled to resume on 8 September, when the Court will also rule on the admissibility of the medical examination report.

The Observatory recalls that protests erupted throughout Georgia in November 2024, following the government’s announcement of the suspension of the negotiations over Georgia’s accession to the European Union, which came shortly after the re-election of the ruling Georgia Dream party in an unfair election. While the protests remained overwhelmingly peaceful, the police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowds, as well as excessive force and mistreatment during transportation, resulting in numerous injuries to protesters and over 480 arbitrary arrests, some of them amounting to inhuman treatment and, possibly, torture.

The Observatory also recalls that Georgia’s worsening human-rights environment is also inextricably linked to the adoption of the repressive ‘foreign agents’ legislation, including the Law ‘On Transparency of Foreign Influence,’ which came into force in May 2024, the ‘Foreign Agents Registration Act’, and the amendments to the Law ‘On Grants’. These laws severely and unlawfully restrict the rights to freedom of association, expression and the right to privacy, creating a drastic, and potentially devastating impact on Georgia’s civil society.

The Observatory is deeply concerned about the obstacles to Ms Datashvili’s access to healthcare while in custody. She is suffering from severe physical pain and requires urgent surgery, yet her repeated requests for medical care have been disregarded, despite her complaints to the General Inspectorate and the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The Observatory strongly condemns the continued arbitrary detention, lack of access to healthcare, use of psychiatric label to stigmatize her which appear to be aimed only aimed at punishing her for her legitimate human rights activities and her defense of the right to freedom of assembly.

The Observatory calls on the Georgian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Ms Nino Datashvili and all other arbitrarily detained human rights defenders and demonstrators in the country, and to put an end to all forms of judicial harassment against them.

Action required:

Please write to the authorities of Georgia asking them to:

1. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical integrity and psychological well-being of Nino Datashvili and all other arbitrarily detained human rights defenders and demonstrators in Georgia;
2. Immediately and unconditionally release Nino Datashvili and all other arbitrarily detained human rights defenders and demonstrators, whose detention appears to be solely aimed at punishing them for their legitimate human rights activities;
3. Quash the charges and cease all acts of harassment, including at the judicial level, against Nino Datashvili and all other human rights defenders in the country, and ensure that they are able to carry out their legitimate activities without any hindrance and fear of reprisals;
4. Guarantee in all circumstances the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association in the country, as enshrined in international human rights law, and particularly in Articles 19 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and in Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Georgia is a state party.

Addresses:

• Mr Irakli Kobakhidze, Prime Minister of Georgia. E-mail: info@gov.ge. X: @GovernmentGeo
• Mr Gela Geladze, Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia. E-mail: police@mia.gov.ge. X: @MiaofGeorgia
• Mr Giorgi Gvarakidze, Chief Prosecutor of Georgia. E-mail: presscenter@pog.gov.ge. X: @OfficialPOG)
• Mr Shalva Papuashvili, Chair of Parliament of Georgia. E-mail: contact@parliament.ge. X: @Geoparliament
• Mr Levan Ioseliani, Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia. E-mail: info@ombudsman.ge
• Permanent Mission of Georgia to the United Nations in Geneva. E-mail: geomission.geneva@mfa.gov.ge
• Embassy of Georgia to Belgium, Luxembourg and Mission of Georgia to the European Union. E-mail: eomission.eu@mfa.gov.ge. X: @GEOmissionEU

Please also write to the diplomatic representations of Georgia in your respective countries.

Geneva-Paris, 2 September 2025

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken, quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:

• E-mail: alert@observatoryfordefenders.org
• Tel FIDH: +33 (0)1 43 55 25 18
• Tel OMCT: +41 22 809 49 39