Judge Giorgi Arevadze sentenced Georgian opposition leader and mother of four, Elene Khoshtaria, to one and a half years in prison for writing “Russian Dream” with a marker on an election banner of Kakha Kaladze, “causing damage estimated by the prosecution at 570 GEL”.
Earlier, the same judge sentenced Archil Museliantsi to four years in prison over a burned cable valued at 534 GEL.
Biography
Giorgi Arevadze is a judge of the Criminal Cases Panel of the Tbilisi City Court, responsible for investigative, pre-trial, and substantive hearings.
He was appointed as a judge for life in 2019.
• In 2002, he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Sokhumi branch of Tbilisi State University.
• From 2003 to 2005, he worked as a specialist, and later as a court secretary, at Rustavi City Court.
• From 2005 to 2007, he served as an assistant to a judge at the Criminal Cases Panel of Tbilisi City Court.
• From 2007 to 2008, he was an assistant to the Chairperson of Tbilisi City Court.
• From 2008 to 2012, he served as a judge at Tbilisi City Court.
• In 2012–2013, he was seconded to the Samtredia District Court.
High-profile cases
Giorgi Arevadze presided over the case of Archil Museliantsi, who was detained during the 2024 protests. Museliantsi was accused of setting fire to surveillance camera cables near the Parliament, causing 534 GEL in damages, and was sentenced to four years in prison. Museliantsi alleged violence against him during the arrest, and falsification of case materials.
“They did not include the shirt that was covered in blood as evidence, because it was bloodstained from the beating. I will not elaborate again on the torture and suffering I endured, as I have already explained in detail how they obtained my signatures, how they blackmailed, intimidated, and threatened me,” Archil Museliantsi said at the final hearing.
On January 12, 2022, Judge Arevadze reclassified a case and found Mamuka Khazaradze, Badri Japaridze, and Avtandil Tsereteli guilty of large-scale fraud instead of money laundering. They were each sentenced to seven years in prison, but were released from serving their sentences due to the statute of limitations. In 2020, Arevadze recused himself from cases involving Nika Gvaramia, Kakha Damenia, and Zurab Iashvili. Prior to that, he fined Gvaramia 500 GEL for calling the judge “inadequate” in a statement made outside the courtroom. On January 5, 2018, Giorgi Arevadze found Georgia’s third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, guilty of abuse of official authority in connection with the pardoning of individuals convicted in the murder of Sandro Girgvliani, sentencing him in absentia to three years in prison. Arevadze is also linked to another decision concerning Saakashvili — in 2023, he refused to postpone the former president’s sentence on health grounds. In December 2015, Arevadze ordered pre-trial detention in absentia for former Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili in a case related to the 2004 seizure of the Akura wine factory. On February 25, 2013, in the case involving Imedi TV and Tbilservice Group, Arevadze rejected the prosecution’s motions to impose a 1 million GEL bail on Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava, suspend him from office, and ban him from leaving the country.
“The grounds presented for removing Gigi Ugulava from the position of Tbilisi Mayor are general and lack any substantiation beyond the descriptive part of the charges,” the judge explained.
Arevadze was also the judge who, on April 30, 2012, sentenced Tamaz Tamazashvili — the father-in-law of Irakli Gharibashvili, then a member of the opposition Georgian Dream initiative group — to 3.5 years in prison on charges of illegal possession of weapons.
“Tamazashvili is a political prisoner. He was arrested at the very beginning of my involvement in politics. I know him very well and I know he is an extremely honest person,” Bidzina Ivanishvili said at the time.
Tamazashvili was later released after Georgian Dream came to power, through a plea agreement, and the case was deemed politically motivated and falsified. In 2011, Arevadze ordered pre-trial detention for former MP and opposition figure Sandro Bregadze, accused of hooliganism involving the use of a weapon. According to the prosecution, Bregadze damaged a Wissol gas station pipeline, broke his own car headlight, physically assaulted a Wissol employee Giorgi Galustashvili, and struck him on the head with a weapon. In 2010, following an incident at Kavkasia TV, Arevadze ordered two months of pre-trial detention for seven individuals: Levan Chachua, Avto Zumbadze, Davit Shalamberidze, Giorgi Gabedava, Rati Maisuradze, Shota Apkhaidze, and Zviad Bliadze. In 2009, Arevadze ordered pre-trial detention for Nugzar Otanadze, the brother of Koba Otanadze, who was wanted in connection with the “Mukhrovani mutiny” case. Nugzar Otanadze, who was questioned about his brother’s whereabouts, claimed he was severely beaten in a Ministry of Interior facility.
Past Remarks by Georgian Dream’s Tea Tsulukiani on Arevadze
“The judicial system before 2012 was useless; judges did whatever Adeishvili told them. The system changed without a change in its composition, and the people who used to do bad things on a mass scale are now doing good things,” Irakli Kobakhidze said in 2019, explaining the changes in the judicial system.
Before Georgian Dream established closer relations with the judicial elite (which critics refer to as a “clan,” a term rejected by those accused), then–Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani had criticized Giorgi Arevadze, accusing him of making decisions favorable to the previous government:
“We, the prosecution, request detention, and Kubalashvili releases them. Who is Kubalashvili? — it’s a collective name. This closed system is arranged in such a way that around 30 cases involving former high- or mid-level officials we have charged always end up with the same 4–5 judges. How is it that these so-called politicized cases are assigned only to 4–5 judges — Giorgi Goginashvili, Gela Badriashvili, Merab Jorbenadze, Giorgi Arevadze, and sometimes Nato Khujadze when needed? The public should know which judge stands against them,” Tsulukiani said on Rustavi 2 in January 2013.
Today, for Georgian Dream, the 1.5-year imprisonment verdict against Elene Khoshtaria — a political leader and mother of four — is considered acceptable, a verdict that Judge Giorgi Arevadze himself explained as follows:
“There were no other mitigating circumstances. Administrative proceedings had been initiated against Elene Khoshtaria 16 times, and she has not paid any of the fines imposed. She was also assigned bail, which she did not pay. The damage has not been compensated, and she does not admit guilt.”
