Khoshtaria Sentenced to 1.5 Years in Prison Over Writing Protest Message on Kaladze’s Banner
Elene Khoshtaria, the leader of the Droa opposition party, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison after being found guilty of “property damage” for writing a protest message on Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze’s campaign banner in September. Tbilisi City Court judge Giorgi Arevadze delivered the ruling on March 24.
Khoshtaria was detained on September 15, 2025, after writing “Russian Dream” on a campaign banner of Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, the ruling Georgian Dream party’s pick, who was running for a third term in the October 4 local elections. Khoshtaria’s act was in solidarity with activist and student Megi Diasamidze, who has been on trial over a similar act.
Khoshtaria was charged with “damaging or destroying another person’s property which has resulted in substantial damage,” a charge carrying a punishment of a fine, community service, corrective labour, house arrest for a term of six months to two years, or imprisonment for a term of one to five years. Prosecutors said Khoshtaria damaged three campaign banners, causing total damage of GEL 570 (approximately USD 210).
On September 17, she was granted bail but remained in custody as she refused to post it, saying it would not mean freedom and she did not want to “take part in lies and a farce.”
Explaining the ruling, Judge Giorgi Arevadze said “there were no mitigating circumstances” for the prison term, noting that Khoshtaria had been charged in administrative cases “16 times” in the past but “had paid none of the fines,” as well as the fact that she has not posted bail, has not compensated for the “damage,” and does not admit guilt.
Khoshtaria’s arrest and prosecution drew backlash, with critics seeing it as disproportionate and politically motivated.
Khoshtaria has been among several opposition figures arrested over the past year in separate cases. Some have since been released after serving sentences for defying a Georgian Dream parliamentary commission, while others, including Ahali’s Nika Melia and former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili, have seen their prison terms extended through new convictions.
Khoshtaria, along with seven other opposition party leaders, also faces separate charges in a “sabotage” case opened in November. She has been charged with sabotage, the provision of material resources for sabotage, and aiding a foreign state in hostile activities, offenses punishable by 7 to 15 years in prison.
Khoshtaria’s Droa is among the nine opposition parties that united in an “Opposition Alliance” early in March, pledging to work together towards “preserving national independence and statehood” and “peaceful dismantling of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream’s autocratic, criminal regime.”
On March 12, the European Parliament adopted a resolution titled “The Case of Elene Khoshtaria and Political Prisoners under the Georgian Dream Regime,” demanding, among others, the release of Khoshtaria and “others detained for politically motivated reasons or for the peaceful exercise of their fundamental rights.”
Also Read:
- 09/03/2026 – Georgian Dream Considers Banning More Parties Through Constitutional Appeal After Opposition Forms Alliance
- 22/07/2025 – Bank Accounts of Opposition Droa Party, its Leader Elene Khoshtaria Frozen