Two Protesters Sentenced to Four and a Half Years in Prison Over Alleged Assault on Police
By Liza Mchedlidze
Monday, August 11, 2025
Tbilisi City Court has sentenced protesters Temur Zasokhashvili and Davit Lomidze to four years and six months in prison on charges of assaulting police officers, marking the tenth and eleventh prison sentences issued in connection with Georgian protests since November 2024. The verdict was announced on August 8 by Judge Nino Galustashvili.
Prosecutors alleged that the two men threw Molotov cocktails during the early stages of protest dispersals, damaging a water-cannon vehicle. Both defendants pleaded not guilty, with their lawyers citing a lack of neutral evidence and claiming it was impossible to positively identify them.
Zasokhashvili, 39, and Lomidze, 53, were detained on December 1, 2024, during the first days of the pro-EU demonstrations, initially on administrative charges. They allege they were severely beaten by police upon arrest, with Lomidze's pre-existing spinal condition reportedly deteriorating to the point that he required additional surgery while in custody.
The pair were later charged with the criminal offense of assaulting police officers, a crime punishable by four to seven years in prison. Prosecutors based their case on low-resolution video footage showing two hooded figures allegedly committing the act, along with the testimonies of riot police officers Badri Tatanashvili and Avtandil Potskhverashvili, who claimed they could identify the men from memory.
Investigators further asserted that the defendants confessed to the crime and identified themselves in the video upon detention. Defense lawyers disputed these claims, arguing that the reports were fabricated and that the signatures on confessions were obtained through deception. They also maintained that the video footage was too unclear for identification and questioned the plausibility of police remembering faces in the chaos of dispersals. The defense noted that no habitoscopic analysis was conducted to verify whether the individuals in the video were indeed Lomidze and Zasokhashvili.
