Zurab Menteshashvili was sentenced to nine months in prison for repeated road blockages during anti-government protests in Tbilisi. This marks the first conviction under controversial new amendments criminalizing certain protest-related administrative offenses.

Zurab Menteshashvili, 61, has been sentenced to nine months in prison after being found guilty of “repeated road blockage,” marking the first known conviction under the charge introduced as part of controversial amendments adopted in October 2025, which criminalized repeated acts of certain protest-related administrative offences. Tbilisi City Court Judge Nino Galustashvili, who had previously handed down a number of guilty verdicts in other protest- and opposition-related cases, delivered the verdict against Menteshashvili on May 29. The 61-year-old, who has already spent seven months in pre-trial detention, therefore has two months left to serve, meaning he is expected to leave prison in August. Menteshashvili was first detained on October 24, 2025, under administrative procedures for “blocking the road” during ongoing anti-government protests on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue in front of parliament. He was sent to seven days in detention. Following his release, he was arrested again on October 31 over a similar act, which led to the criminal qualification of his case. He was charged under Article 347 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which provides that repeated violations of the rules governing assemblies and demonstrations, such as “blocking the road” or covering faces during protests, may be punishable by up to one year in prison, while further repetition of the same acts may lead to up to two years in prison. The controversial amendments were adopted by the disputed parliament on October 16. Since his arrest, Menteshashvili has reportedly been on a hunger strike for unconfirmed period of time. “I love my homeland, I will do everything for it…I didn’t know if this [blocking the road] is a crime…Here I stand, I can do no other, arrest me for the fourth time if you want,” Menteshashvili told the court in his concluding remarks, according to RFE/RL’s Georgian Service. The conviction comes amid ongoing anti-government protests that began on November 28, 2024, when Georgian Dream announced the suspension of the EU integration process. As protest-related legislation has gradually been tightened, hundreds of citizens have been fined and then detained for days on charges of “blocking the road,” as Rustaveli Avenue, the traditional protest site in front of parliament, had been blocked to traffic every night for nearly a year. The protest-related restrictions were extended to pedestrian areas in December 2025, when “obstructing the free movement of people” on sidewalks was introduced as an administrative offense. Dozens have been sent to days in detention under the charge, in what critics say amounts to punishing citizens for merely protesting on sidewalks. Another protester facing similar “repeated” criminal charges is Shalva Esartia, an anti-government activist from the western Georgian town of Zugdidi. Esartia is in pretrial detention and faces up to one year in prison on charges of “repeatedly disobeying a police order.” Also Read: 18/04/2026 – Protesters, Journalists Report Frozen Accounts Over Unnotified ‘Road Blockage’ Fines 23/01/2026 – First Protester Sent to Detention in ‘Sidewalk’ Protest Case 30/08/2025 – Repression in Numbers This post is also available in: ქართული Nino Galustashvili protest-related laws Tbilisi City Court Zurab Menteshashvili Copy URL