Giorgi Mindadze, a 21-year-old medical student, was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of assaulting police — the fifth guilty verdict handed down in the criminal cases against dozens detained since November 2024 for their involvement in anti-Georgian Dream protests.

Judge Nino Galustashvili delivered a verdict on July 3, during a hearing with limited media coverage, coming just days after new restrictions on courtroom recording took effect. The verdict came on a tense day at Tbilisi City Court, with dramatic scenes of confrontations between bailiffs and Mindadze’s supporters erupting in the court corridors. Part of the supporters were forced to leave the building.

“Fight as long as at least one person has hope and faith to win this fight,” Mindadze wrote in a letter brought to the hearing by his foster mother, Nani Tsulaia, a leading voice in the campaign to free detained protesters. The verdict was delivered on Tsulaia’s birthday.

Mindadze was detained in early December and tried for allegedly injuring a police officer with pyrotechnics during a rally on November 29. The charges carry a sentence of four to seven years in prison. The defense dismissed the allegations as lacking evidence.

The allegations in Mindadze’s case were based on video footage showing a young man – allegedly Mindadze – setting off fireworks during a rally. The man has half of his lower face, under the nose, covered with a medical mask. The video doesn’t show the trajectory or the exact destination of the shots.

Prosecutors alleged, however, that the firework landed behind the riot police cordon and exploded, injuring an officer in the leg. They cited separate footage, which they said was recorded at the time of the incident, showing a firework exploding behind the police line. Prosecutors claimed the explosion was caused by the firework launched by Mindadze.

Shmagi Jachvadze, a riot police officer identified by the prosecution as the alleged victim, testified before Tbilisi City Court in May that he sustained burns on the leg from a pyrotechnic explosion launched by one of the protesters. During his testimony, he identified Mindadze as the protester responsible. Jachvadze said he was examined by ambulance staff but did not go to the hospital, treating the burns himself.

In the initial weeks of protests that erupted in response to Georgian Dream’s announcement of halting EU integration, protesters intensively launched fireworks in response to violent police dispersals. Authorities later cracked down on the sale and use of pyrotechnics.

No police officer has been held accountable despite numerous documented abuses during dispersals. Dozens of protesters, however, remain in jail on criminal charges, convicted or awaiting their verdicts.

Mindadze is the fifth protester to be convicted among those arrested since November 2024. Earlier convictions include Mate Devidze, Denis Kulanin, Daniel Mumladze and Guram Khutashvili, all of them sentenced to years in jail.

Seven more remain in prison after being convicted over their involvement in the spring 2024 protests against the foreign agents law, including Omar Okribelashvili, Saba Meparishvili, and Pridon Bubuteishvili, who were convicted in January, Davit Koldari, Giorgi Kuchuashvili, and Giorgi Okmelashvili, who were convicted in February, as well as Irakli Megvinetukhutsesi, convicted in December.

Seven individuals, including six active opposition politicians, were recently sentenced to prison terms of several months for defying the Georgian Dream investigative commission.