The Tbilisi City Court has jailed a teenager for 9 years and 8 months after convicting him in an organized torture case tied to what prosecutors call a “fascist-Nazi” ideology, the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office said on July 7, 2026. The defendant is one of 22 people charged in a wider Georgian crackdown on hate-driven violence that has placed organized abuse of victims, many targeted for their views and sexual orientation, before the country’s courts. The case is detailed in the July 7 report on the teenager’s sentencing.
Under Georgia’s Juvenile Justice Code, the court automatically cut the sentence from 14 years and 6 months because the defendant was a minor at the time of the offense. The broader investigation has documented victims targeted for their sexual orientation, identity, and political views.
What the Court Found
The Tbilisi City Court fully upheld the prosecution’s evidence and found one of the juvenile defendants guilty of torture committed by an organized group motivated by intolerance. The defendant was also convicted of organizing and participating in group violence. The charges fall under Article 1441 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, with two counts under Part 3(b) for torture committed by an organized group. The full charges are laid out in the prosecution’s official statement on the verdict.
A third charge covered torture of a person known to be a minor under Article 1441, Part 2(g) and Part 3(b). Article 225, Parts 1 and 2 covered organizing and participating in violent group actions. The defendant was 17 or younger at the time of the alleged offenses, and his name and arrest date have not been disclosed.
The verdict is the second Tbilisi court ruling in less than a year to deliver prison time to members of a hate-driven group. The December 2025 case and the broader investigation behind the July 7 verdict both placed minors on both sides of the courtroom, as defendants in one and as victims of organized violence in the other.
The Juvenile Justice Code’s One-Third Cut
The court initially imposed a sentence of 14 years and 6 months in prison. Under Georgia’s Juvenile Justice Code, the term was automatically reduced by one-third because the defendant was a minor at the time of the offense, leaving a final prison term of 9 years and 8 months. The reduction is statutory, not discretionary, and applies to every juvenile conviction in Georgia. The same one-third cut shaped the December 2025 sentencing of a separate group of Tbilisi hate-crime defendants.
The December 2025 trial produced three sentence tiers based on the defendant’s age. The court imposed different prison terms for adults, older teens, and younger teens alike. The July 7 teenager sits inside the same age-and-sentence band as those December defendants.
The deduction is built into the sentence rather than imposed by the judge, and the prosecutor’s office did not seek to override it in the July 7 ruling. The deduction applies once the court confirms the defendant was a minor at the time of the offense, with the same one-third rate used in every juvenile conviction in Georgia.
The code’s automatic reduction has drawn debate as applied to organized-crime cases involving minors. Court records from the broader investigation show that at least four minors were among more than 10 documented victims across the group’s attacks. The teenage defendant organized acts of violence and torture against people including minors, prosecutors said.
Who the Group Targeted
Prosecutors say the group preselected victims based on “differing views, sexual orientation, and identity,” then attacked them in groups, humiliated them, stole personal belongings, and subjected them to “physical and psychological violence and torture.” The Interior Ministry’s January 16 statement described the victims as people who “disagreed with their ideology.” Four minors were among more than 10 documented victims of the broader attacks, the ministry said. The teenage defendant “organized acts of violence and torture against individuals, including minors, whose lifestyle was deemed unacceptable by the group,” prosecutors said.
They also filmed the violence and shared the footage on social media and in closed groups, inflicting severe physical, psychological, and moral suffering on the victims.
The quote is from a statement by the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office summarizing the broader investigation. The office’s June update also referenced suspects “already in custody at the time they were charged, serving sentences in a separate criminal case.”
Items seized during searches of the suspects’ personal and residential properties included mobile phones, masks, electronic devices, “items bearing Nazi symbols, and both blunt and sharp weapons,” the Interior Ministry said. The suspects “referred to themselves as neo-Nazis and showed ‘radical attitude’ toward victims ‘to increase [their] influence and gain recognition,'” the statement added. The filmed abuse has circulated on Georgian social media for months, providing much of the evidence used in the prosecutions.
Tracing the ‘Fascist-Nazi’ Group Arrests
The teenager is one of 22 people charged in a single mass-violence investigation that prosecutors have described as targeting a network of hate-driven groups. On January 16, the Interior Ministry announced the detention of 16 suspects, including 10 minors, in a nationwide sweep. Two more suspects were detained on January 22, charged without the robbery count that had been added to the others. In June, the Prosecutor General’s Office filed four additional charges against suspects already in custody serving sentences from a separate criminal case, according to the four new charges filed in the wider hate case. “The investigation is ongoing to identify other individuals involved,” the office said.
The defendants have been investigated under three criminal counts: organizing and participating in group violence, gang robbery, and torture of a minor by a group. Two of the January 22 suspects were instead charged with inhumane treatment of a minor by a group, a charge that carried no robbery count but kept the other two counts. The June update kept the same statutory framework, layering new hate-motivated counts on top of prior convictions. The office has not disclosed the total number of victims across all 22 defendants.
Searches conducted in January turned up the mobile phones, masks, electronic devices, Nazi-symbol items, and weapons the ministry listed in its initial statement. The office’s June update described suspects “already in custody at the time they were charged, serving sentences in a separate criminal case,” pointing to a separate earlier prosecution that preceded the hate-violence charges. The July 7 verdict is the second conviction to come out of this investigation, with the December 2025 case the first.
An Earlier Verdict in a Tbilisi Hate Trial
The July 7 ruling comes eight months after the December 2025 sentencing of nine defendants in a separate Tbilisi assault case also tied to what investigators described as fascist ideology. That earlier case involved three adults and six minors, with the December court imposing different sentence tiers depending on age. The July 7 teenager was not among those December defendants, but both cases applied the same Criminal Code articles covering organized torture and group violence.
The court’s December 2025 sentencing tiers were:
- Three adults: 10-year prison terms
- Three defendants aged 16 to 18: seven and a half years
- Three defendants under 16: six years and eight months
All defendants in the December trial, except one, were charged with collectively and knowingly subjecting a minor to inhuman and degrading treatment. The exception was the oldest defendant, 30-year-old Levan Abesadze, whom prosecutors accused of organizing the crime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was the sentence cut from 14 years, 6 months to 9 years, 8 months?
Georgia’s Juvenile Justice Code requires an automatic one-third sentence reduction for defendants who were minors at the time of the offense. The reduction is statutory and not discretionary, and applies the same one-third cut to every juvenile conviction in Georgia.
How many people have been charged in the broader case?
The Prosecutor General’s Office has charged 22 people in connection with a single mass-violence investigation into hate-driven groups. Sixteen were detained on January 16, 2026, including 10 minors, and two more were detained on January 22. The June update added four more charges against suspects already in custody from a separate criminal case.
Were any of the victims minors?
Yes. The Interior Ministry’s January 16 statement said four minors were among more than 10 documented victims of the broader group’s attacks. The teenage defendant organized acts of violence and torture against individuals, including minors, prosecutors said in announcing the July 7 verdict. Members filmed the abuse and shared it on social media and in closed online groups, inflicting severe physical, psychological, and moral suffering on the victims. The victims included people targeted for their views, sexual orientation, and identity.
What ideology did prosecutors attribute to the defendant?
Prosecutors said the defendant adhered to a fascist-Nazi ideology. The group targeted people whose lifestyle was deemed unacceptable by its members, including on grounds of sexual orientation and identity. The Interior Ministry’s January statement said suspects referred to themselves as neo-Nazis and showed radical attitude toward victims to increase their influence and gain recognition.
