Day: August 27, 2025

Georgian authorities have frozen the bank accounts of seven civil society organizations as part of what the Prosecutor’s Office said is an ongoing “sabotage” investigation, claiming the groups’ funds were used to “equip with special means rally participants who committed violent acts against law enforcement” during the 2024 protests.

The organizations whose accounts were frozen include the Civil Society Foundation (CSF), the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), Democracy Defenders, Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI), Sapari, and the Social Justice Center (SJC).

Their “targeted funds were used to purchase such equipment as special gas masks, protective glasses, medical masks, masks covering faces, pepper spray and other means, which rally participants actively used during violent confrontations with police,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in an August 27 statement.

The move comes amid an inspection request by the Anti-Corruption Bureau of several of the groups under Georgian Dream’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), as the Bureau alleged their “political activities” and warned of criminal liability for failing to register. In June, the Bureau, led by GD loyalist Razhden Kuprashvili, also sought to inspect the groups under three other laws, demanding extensive information, including sensitive data about their beneficiaries. The CSOs refused both inspection requests.

The Prosecutor’s Office said the ongoing investigation, under which the Tbilisi City Court granted its request to freeze bank accounts, involves several criminal charges, including “sabotage, attempted sabotage under aggravated circumstances, assisting a foreign organization or an organization under foreign influence in hostile activities, and financing actions against Georgia’s constitutional order and national security.”

“The heads of these organizations openly called on society toward disobedience and resistance,” the Prosecutor’s Office said, adding that their organizational and financial activities were “fully directed at providing financial patronage for individuals involved in violent acts and their family members.”

“It involved paying fines, covering legal defense costs, and addressing other personal and organizational matters,” the statement continued. “The purpose of these actions was, on the one hand, to encourage those engaged in unlawful acts and, on the other, to shield them. Ultimately, the coordinated activities sought to weaken law enforcement agencies and disrupt their normal functioning.”

Saba Brachveli, a lawyer at the Civil Society Foundation, criticized the move and the Prosecutor’s Office statement in a Facebook post, writing: “In other words, the Prosecutor’s Office labeled as a crime helping provide legal defense for another person (especially someone unjustly detained) supporting their families, giving legal consultations and generally encouraging prisoners, and for this it froze the assets of civil society organizations.”

“We are those people who never leave others alone in an ordeal,” Brachveli added.

In March, authorities froze the bank accounts of funds that supported protesters, mainly by covering hefty fines for blocking roads. The Prosecutor’s Office then said the freezing of their bank accounts was part of a similar sabotage-related investigation.

Also Read:

• 22/08/2025 – Inspected CSOs Say FARA Doesn’t Apply to Them as They Refuse to Register