Anti-Corruption Bureau Investigates Two Political Platforms Over Financial Records
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
The Anti-Corruption Bureau has launched investigations into two political platforms, Freedom Square and the Movement for Social Democracy, marking another step in the government's expanding scrutiny of civic and political groups. Both platforms remain unregistered as political parties.
Members of Freedom Square, Simon Janashia and Giorgi Shaishmelashvili, said the Bureau notified them that a court had approved access to their personal bank accounts and was seeking information on both their personal and platform finances. They noted that the Public Registry has twice refused to register their platform as a political party, with a third application still under review.
"Of course, I will appeal this request," Janashia wrote on Facebook on October 6. "It is sheer cynicism that, on the one hand, they refuse to register us as a party, and on the other, treat us as one."
The Movement for Social Democracy, a left-wing group formed in February, reported a similar court decision allowing the Bureau to obtain "full financial information" about the organization and twelve of its members. In a statement posted on Facebook on October 3, the group said the measure "aims to establish control over the personal space of these people."
"With this move, the state is trying to extend a series of legislative restrictions meant for political parties onto the Movement, to bring us under the special regulations that apply to political entities with electoral goals," the post said. The group called the decision "absurd," stressing that it is not a political party and that the Bureau had provided "no evidence" of its participation in any electoral process.
"This represents yet another blatant attempt to hinder the Movement's activities," the group added. "The aim of this is to deter people from taking part in public politics, to suppress any form of citizen organization, and bring it under state control."
The Bureau's requests appear to rely on the Law on Political Parties, the same legislation used last year to label Transparency International-Georgia a "political actor" shortly before the 2024 elections. That decision was later reversed at the request of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.
