(Joint statement by PEN Georgia and the Georgian Book Association)
Over the past three days, the Georgian authorities have detained several citizens on Rustaveli Avenue for either blocking the road or wearing face masks. Among those detained are writer Beka Kurkhuli, journalists Vakho Sanaia and Keta Tsitskishvili, artist Levan Margiani, and others.
Writer Beka Kurkhuli has been sentenced to eight days in detention by the court.
“I do not feel guilty for a single moment. I confirm that I actively participate in the protest. Whether they sentence me to 15 days or 15 months, what matters to me is dignity — to be able to look my friends and my people in the eye. This government must go!” — said Beka Kurkhuli during the court hearing.
Beka Kurkhuli is a well-known writer and war reporter, author of several short story collections and novels, winner of literary prizes SABA (2016) and Free LITERA (2021). He has worked for Dilis Gazeti (“Morning Newspaper”) and published reports from conflict zones and hotspots such as Abkhazia, the Tskhinvali region, North Ossetia, Azerbaijan, and a NATO base in Afghanistan. His latest novel, Ukrainian Days, is a war diary written after his stay in Ukraine.
PEN Georgia and the Georgian Book Association express their solidarity with Beka Kurkhuli and all other detainees, calling for their immediate and unconditional release.
Recent amendments to the Administrative Code of Georgia stipulate that covering one’s face at a rally or artificially blocking a road is punishable by up to 15 days in detention. Repeating these actions is considered a criminal offense, punishable by up to one year in prison.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 53 violations of this new law have been recorded over the past three days. Forty-two individuals have been identified as offenders — some have already been detained, while administrative proceedings are underway against others, whose cases will be reviewed by the court in the coming days.
We believe that by tightening the Administrative Code (which has led to the arrest of activists), the ruling Georgian Dream government is attempting to abolish freedom of expression and the right to assembly in the country. The intensifying repression has a clear purpose — to silence citizens’ free voices, spread fear, and suppress the Rustaveli protest, which has been ongoing for 330 consecutive days.
