In Georgia, a war reporter and award-winning writer has been imprisoned

The well-known Georgian writer and war correspondent Beka Kurkhuli was sentenced to administrative detention for “blocking a street” during protests in Tbilisi.

Beka Kurkhuli actively participated in anti-government protests. From May to June 2022, Kurkhuli also worked as a war reporter covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That same year, his book “Ukraine Days” — his diary as a war journalist — was published by Intelekti Publishing House. In 2024, the second part of the book was released. Kurkhuli dedicated the publication to the fallen athlete and soldier Jaba “Goliath” Khaperia and to all Georgian soldiers who died for Ukraine.

Gvantsa Jobava, head of international relations at the Georgian publishing house Intelekti and president of the International Publishers Association (IPA), had flown in from the Frankfurt Book Fair — where Georgia was presented with a call to free writers and journalists held as political prisoners — and that same day had to attend the court where Beka Kurkhuli, an Intelekti author, was sentenced.

According to Jobava, who was present in court but could not enter the court room on October 21, Beka Kurkhuli received 8 days of detention. Under the new law, a subsequent violation could lead to imprisonment for up to a year.

I don’t feel guilty for even a single moment. I confirm that I actively participated in the protest. Whether they sentence me to 15 days or 15 months – what matters to me is dignity, and how I will look my friends and my people in the eyes. This government must go!

said Kurkhuli in court.

A new wave of arrests of activists — including writers and journalists — began this past weekend, after new restrictive laws on blocking roads and wearing masks at protests came into force. According to OC Media, a reader-funded media platform covering the Caucasus, at least 14 people were detained.

The parliament, controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party and its allies, hurriedly passed these amendments on Thursday. They replaced administrative fines with prison terms for a number of protest-related “offenses.”

Prior to the legislative changes, according to Politico, Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs fined Finland’s foreign minister after she expressed support for participants in an anti-government rally — the fine amounted to USD $1,850.

This is the 328th consecutive day of protests on Tbilisi’s central avenue. Demonstrators have been blocking the road in front of parliament daily since November 28, 2024, when the government announced it was “postponing” the country’s EU application. Some protests had also taken place earlier, including with the participation of Georgian publishers.

After the court hearing, Gvantsa Jobava, like hundreds of other demonstrators, rejoined the protests on Rustaveli Avenue.

Beka Kurkhuli is a well-known Georgian writer and journalist. From 1999 to 2004, he worked as a reporter for Dilis Gazeti, covering conflicts in Georgia and the Caucasus — including Abkhazia, the Tskhinvali region, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Azerbaijan, and the Pankisi Gorge — and in 2022, in Ukraine.

Kurkhuli’s novel “Escape from Paradise” won the Saba Literary Prize for Best Novel of the Year (2016), while his collection “Skandara and Other Stories” received the Literary Prize for Best Prose Collection of the Year (2018). In 2019, he was awarded the Saguramo Prize in the “Georgian Prose” category, and in 2022 his novel “Notes of a Kipchak who Lost One Eye” received the Free Literature Award for Best Novel.

Copy editing: Terra Friedman King