Georgian Political Prisoner Bachiashvili Tortured in Custody

Washington DC, July 14, 2025 — Georgian political prisoner George Bachiashvili has been brutally assaulted in prison. Although detained in solitary confinement and under video surveillance, on the evening of July 11, 2025, prison authorties allowed a heavyset man into Bachiashvili’s cell. The man immediately violently beat Bachiashvili, who lost consciousness after the man bit him so hard that he drew blood. A guard opened the door mid-beating, only to close it again on the attacker’s orders. Bachiashvili suffered serious injuries, including a head wound requiring stitches, facial trauma, lacerations and neurological distress.

Bachiashvili was transferred to a medical clinic but was denied access to his lawyers and family. He was warned that his persistent requests to contact his legal team would result in the withdrawal of medical care. He was uncontactable for over 24 hours until he declared a hunger strike and was able to contact the Public Defender’s hotline.

This brutal attack in Tbilisi’s notorious Gldani prison was no accident, but rather the latest escalation in a politically motivated campaign orchestrated by Bidzina Ivanishvili against a man imprisoned for defying him, the de facto leader of the regime. Just days before the attack, the prison warden had forebodeingly threatened Bachiashvili that he would face both “crazy” and “less crazy” people in the prison population.

Robert Amsterdam, Founding Partner of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, who is Bachiashvili’s international counsel, stated: “This was pure torture, carried out under state supervision. The Georgian authorities are complicit and we are reporting this grave incident to international authorities.”

Amsterdam, who warned that Bachiashvili was the target of an assassination plot before being forcibly returned to Georgia from the United Arab Emirates, demanded that his client be granted supervised release from the detention facility. Otherwise, Amsterdam called upon Georgian authorities to guarantee Bachiashvili’s safety and wellbeing; grant him access to his lawyers and family as allowed by law; provide him with independent medical care; and conduct a credible investigation of the attack.

Amsterdam & Partners LLP is an international law firm based in Washington DC and London, specialized in human rights advocacy. For more information about the firm, please visit www.amsterdamandpartners.com. Information on the Bachiashvili case is available at www.bidzinaslaw.com. Media inquiries may be directed to contact@amsterdamandpartners.com.