Nadim Khmaladze has been joining thousands of fellow Georgians on the streets every evening since November, when Tbilisi’s increasingly repressive government shelved EU membership talks.

The 60-year-old rights activist said he was “ready to face police violence” when he first joined the anti-government rallies in Tbilisi, but he never imagined that standing on the street for a few hours could cost him more than 22 months’ salary.

Three months into the protests, he received a summons: a total of 45,000 lari (around $16,000) in fines for briefly blocking traffic along Tbilisi’s central avenue.

“The government is using Russian-style methods to abolish freedom of assembly in Georgia,” he told AFP.

Khmaladze is one of thousands of Georgian protesters facing crippling fines for taking to the streets.

Prominent writer Mikheil Tsikhelashvili, who returned to Georgia last year from emigration in Portugal to fight against the ruling Georgian Dream party’s “pro-Russian policies,” has been attending protests daily.

He says he and his girlfriend were each fined the equivalent of $1,850, in what he called a “financial terror aimed at extinguishing popular anger.”

“I took the case to court,” he said, adding however that he had “little hope in Georgia’s justice system, which is fully controlled by the ruling party.”

– Unprecedented protests –

Braving bitter frost, protesters continue to rally daily in Tbilisi and cities across the Black Sea nation, in what has become an unprecedented protest movement against Georgian Dream’s perceived democratic backsliding and growing rapprochement with Moscow.

The mass protests first erupted following disputed parliamentary elections in October, which the opposition rejected as rigged in favour of Georgian Dream.

The movement intensified after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s November 28 announcement that his cabinet would not seek to open EU membership talks with Brussels until 2028 — a move that shocked many.

Georgia is an official candidate for membership in the 27-nation bloc, a bid supported by more than 80 percent of the population, according to opinion polls, and enshrined in the country’s constitution.

During the protests’ initial phase, security forces used tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators and made hundreds of arrests.

Georgia’s top human rights official, ombudsman Levan Ioseliani, and Amnesty International have accused police of “torturing” detainees — a charge the government denies.

Authorities have since resorted to harsh financial penalties and increased surveillance, deploying facial recognition technology to identify protesters and issue hefty fines.

– ‘Slowly strangling’ –

“After the bare violence proved ineffective, the government turned to intimidation — televised police raids on activists’ homes and anonymous threats over the phone,” Salome Khvadagiani, the director of Liberty Institute rights group, told AFP.

“When that too failed to suppress the protest, the government moved to slowly strangling them — financially,” she added.

In December, fines for blocking roads were increased tenfold, to 5,000 laris ($1,850), leaving thousands facing “absolutely disproportionate financial sanctions” or, alternatively, 15 days in prison.

In January alone, the total amount of fines surpassed $6.5 million in the country of four million people, where the average monthly salary is some $740, according to the For Georgia opposition party.

The interior ministry said it only issues fines “when the number of demonstrators doesn’t justify blocking the road” and a rally can be held without disrupting traffic.

To enforce these measures, authorities have expanded surveillance capabilities, including the deployment of facial recognition technology.

Rights groups said the government has drastically increased the number of high-resolution surveillance cameras in the streets of Tbilisi.

The widespread use of “facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies facilitates discriminatory targeted surveillance,” said GYLA rights watchdog. “These practices undermine fundamental rights.”

– ‘We will never back down’ –

In 2021, Amnesty International, along with several other international rights groups, called for “an outright ban on uses of facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies that enable mass surveillance and discriminatory targeted surveillance.”

Khvadagiani of the Liberty Institute said the “campaign of mass and disproportional financial sanction has caused protests turnout to dwindle significantly over the last month.”

But demonstrators are now “adapting to the situation” she said, filing court complaints that have overwhelmed the judicial system, “significantly delaying the enforcement of financial sanctions or even making them unenforceable.”

“The government can’t scare us,” said Khmaladze, who fought for nearly two years on Ukraine’s frontlines against invading Russian troops.

“We are taking to the streets for Georgia’s democracy and will never back down,” he said.

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Suspended Georgia offensive lineman Marques Easley was arrested on Friday in Oconee County after he crashed his car into an apartment complex in Watkinsville on Monday.

Easley was booked at 4:35 p.m. ET on Friday and released at 5:04 p.m. on a $1,000 bond, per an online booking report. Easley was charged with three counts of reckless conduct, a misdemeanor, and one count of reckless driving.

Georgia announced that Easley and wide receiver Nitro Tuggle were suspended indefinitely earlier this week. Tuggle’s suspension was due to a separate incident after he had been arrested on speeding and reckless driving charges, both of which are misdemeanors.

Easley’s crash took place just after 10 p.m. on March 17. According to the incident report, Easley’s car, a 2021 Dodge Challenger was traveling west on Redwood Lane in a “reckless disregard.” His car lost control with the back end twisting clockwise, leaving the roadway. Easley’s vehicle first struck a power box. Easley’s car next hit the driver’s side of Easley’s car hit the passenger side of the Hyundai Elantra and then struck the Mercedes-Benz CLA. The driver’s side of the Hyundai struck the passenger side of the Mercedes.

The Georgia offensive lineman told officers that he was traveling around 25 to 30 miles per hour but an investigation into the crash determined that Easley’s account was inaccurate. Per the incident report, tire marks and evidence suggest that Easley was “laying drag.”

“The investigating troopers found this to be an inaccurate account of (what) happened due to the amount of damage from the crash and the fact that (the Dodge Challenger) had tire marks going back an estimated 200 feet,” the report stated.

Easley is a redshirt freshman from Peoria, Ill. He signed as a member of Georgia’s 2024 signing class and appeared in two games last season.

Easley was taken to Piedmont Athens Regional due to the accident. Details of his injuries were not listed in the crash report. A second Georgia player — redshirt freshman cornerback Ondre Evans — was listed on the crash report among the six occupants involved. Evans was not taken to the hospital.

This is the second arrest of the offseason for Georgia, with Tuggle’s being the first. In total, there have now been 32 incidents involving a Georgia football player or staff member who has been charged with speeding, racing, reckless driving or reckless conduct dating back to the Jan. 15, 2023 death of football player Devin Willock and support staffer Chandler LeCroy in a car crash.

A murder suspect accused of strangling a Georgia mother of five in a random attack last week is a Honduran illegal immigrant who was caught and released at the southern border by the Biden administration in March 2021, Fox News has learned. 

David Hector Rivas-Sagastume, 21, has also been the subject of a deportation order since July 2023, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said. 

Rivas-Sagastume is charged with capital murder in the death of Camilla Williams, a 52-year-old mother of five and grandmother. Her body was found dumped in a wooded area, authorities said. 

Williams’ family told local media outlets that she said a man had been following her in the days before she was killed. Authorities have not determined the suspect’s connection to Williams. 

An arrest warrant states that Rivas-Sagastume assaulted Williams of Marietta, placing her in a chokehold, causing her to lose consciousness sometime between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. on March 12, Fox Atlanta reported.

Once unconscious, Rivas-Sagastume allegedly told police he put both knees and his full body weight on her neck, leading to her death.

The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that Rivas-Sagastume entered the United States illegally on March 17, 2021, and was arrested by the US Border Patrol. 

“He was issued a notice to appear and paroled into the country by the previous administration,” the statement said. “A judge ordered him removed on July 11, 2023. On March 18, 2025, he was arrested by the Cobb County Police Department for capital murder and other crimes.”

“ICE has lodged an immigration detainer with the Cobb County Jail. President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow criminal illegal aliens—including accused murderers—to be loose on America’s streets.”

Rivas-Sagastume is being held on no bond, according to jail records.

Williams’ killing has drawn parallels to the murder of Laken Riley, who was also murdered in Georgia by an illegal immigrant who was caught and released by border authorities.

He was later convicted of Riley’s murder.

Riley’s body was also left in the woods.