2 days ago
Failure to Pay Protest Fines to Lead to Detention for Repeat Acts
Individuals who fail to pay fines for four administrative offenses — petty hooliganism, disobeying police, insulting public officials, and violating protest rules such as blocking roads or wearing face coverings — will be sent to detention if they repeat the offenses.
These offenses are among the most commonly cited against demonstrators participating in anti–Georgian Dream protests.
The rule changes are part of
amendments
to Georgia's Code of Administrative Offenses, passed by the Georgian Dream parliament on July 2, following two days of accelerated deliberations during extraordinary sessions.
Fines for these offenses vary and increase with repeated violations, but generally range around GEL 5,000 (about USD 1,800). If an individual fails to pay a previous fine and is found guilty of the same offense again, the court will no longer have the option to impose another fine and will be required to order detention.
The maximum administrative detention period in Georgia is 60 days,
extended
from 15 days in February.
The amendments also change the appeals process for fines. Instead of appealing to the Interior Ministry, individuals must now appeal directly to the courts. Some say the change will ease the ministry's workload — particularly the large number of appeals over road blockage fines — but will add pressure on the judiciary.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs was given authority to impose fines for administrative offenses in February. Since then, citizens have been appealing these fines directly to the ministry.
'If the accounting and backlog of fines was the MIA's job before, now the review of administrative offenses will fall to seven judges,' lawyer Saba Brachveli
wrote
on Facebook, suggesting the state system is shifting the burden onto the courts to handle a growing caseload.
'Those of you who have appealed to the Interior Ministry and have not yet received a response, this new rule will apply to your cases as well,' lawyer Nika Simonishvili
said
in a Facebook post. He added, 'The Interior Ministry will no longer review your appeal, and all these cases will be sent to the court 10 days after the law comes into force.'
Although the exact number is unknown, media estimates suggest hundreds have been fined for blocking roads since protests began on November 28, 2024, after the Georgian Dream government announced it was abandoning the country's EU accession process. The ongoing
resistance
has since blocked Tbilisi's main Rustaveli Avenue in front of the parliament building daily for more than seven months now.
The fine for road blockage was GEL 500 before December, until the Georgian Dream parliament
increased
it tenfold to GEL 5,000 (about USD 1,800), more than twice the average monthly income in Georgia.
In mid-March, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, a human rights group,
said
road blockage fines since November 28 stood at GEL 2 million (about USD 715,000). Watchdog groups have widely
criticized
the hefty fines as a repressive tool used by the government to suppress protests.
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