The NGO GYLA (Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association) has commented on footage showing police violence against a Georgian citizen. The organization emphasizes that the state facilitates the normalization of torture and ill-treatment, while also creating conditions of impunity for those responsible.
The statement refers to footage broadcast by the opposition TV channel TV Pirveli, which shows police officers subjecting detainees to group torture and degrading treatment in order to extract information.
GYLA states that the footage was filmed by the police officers themselves, who later shared it in internal group chats, which points to the systemic nature of the violence and the confidence of Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) employees in their impunity.
The NGO points out that cases of police violence during the 2024–2025 protests were widespread and systemic. GYLA cites data from Georgia’s Public Defender (Ombudsman) and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT).
In a report, the Public Defender noted that in late 2024, signs of ill-treatment were identified in 242 out of 343 detained participants of pro-European protests.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia stated that the footage of violence relates to an incident that occurred in the summer of 2022 in Kobuleti (Adjara region). It was emphasized that the crime was uncovered in February 2026, after which three police officers were detained.
However, the organization’s human rights defenders believe that initiating criminal proceedings against individual police officers does not solve the problem.
The NGO questions why the investigation was launched more than three years later, why the actions of those involved were not classified as torture, and why responsibility was not placed on other officers and supervisors who may have been aware of what was happening.
GYLA’s Conclusions
- Police violence in Georgia is systemic rather than isolated;
- In most cases, the responsible police officers and their supervisors escape accountability;
- Cases of torture and ill-treatment are often classified as abuse of official authority, which reduces the severity of liability;
- Independent investigation mechanisms for police crimes remain ineffective;
- The authorities fail to implement Council of Europe recommendations on preventing police violence, including the mandatory use of body-worn cameras and identification badges;
- The state does not take sufficient systemic measures to prevent torture and ill-treatment;
- Initiating criminal cases against individual police officers without holding leadership accountable and addressing systemic issues is largely a formality.
“The state’s approach to systematic torture and ill-treatment is aimed at normalizing such acts and creating favorable conditions for their existence. In this situation, the criminal prosecution of individual police officers looks more like a facade than a real struggle against a systemic problem,” GYLA concludes.