Prosecutors Drop Investigation into Alleged Sexual Violence Case Involving Davitadze

The Georgian Prosecutor's Office on October 9, 2026 terminated the investigation into alleged sexual violence against Giorgi Davitadze for lack of a crime. According to the agency, during the inspection of Davitadze in the de-escalation room "no violence or criminal act was committed against him".

According to the prosecutor's office, on December 21, 2025, during a scheduled inspection of the cell, Davitadze verbally insulted employees of the facility, threatened self-harm and physically assaulted members of the duty staff. Because of this, he was moved to the de-escalation room, where, according to the prosecutor's office, he continued to insult employees and was aggressive.

According to the agency, a proportionate measure of coercion was used in accordance with legal requirements to carry out a personal search: three employees of the facility detained the accused, and one of them, G.V., carried out the personal search by "surface contact with the body from the outside". According to the prosecutor's office, a metal detector was also used during the search.

The prosecutor's office writes that within 5 days of the incident in the de-escalation room, Davitadze was visited by a representative of the Public Defender's Office. According to the agency, he did not mention an instance of rape to the representative. According to the same account, Davitadze said that one of the facility's employees, someone named "Kvara", threatened him with rape and slid a medical glove into his trousers. He also said that employees systematically subjected him to verbal insults.

Based on information forwarded from the Public Defender's Office, Davitadze refused to provide information without a lawyer to the investigator who came to the prosecutor's office. His lawyer refused on December 29, 2025 to enter the penitentiary due to health reasons. On January 9, 2026, he stated that due to health he again could not appear and that, in agreement with the convict's family members, another lawyer would represent his interests.

Davitadze was interviewed on January 12, 2026 with a lawyer present. According to the prosecutor's office, he reported the alleged sexual violent act only at this stage of the investigation. In the presence of his lawyer he refused to undergo a medical examination and indicated that he had not received physical injury. The "Kvara" named during the interview, as later clarified, is Giorgi Kvaratskhelia, who does not work at the penitentiary facility at all.

On July 3, 2026, Davitadze's lawyer applied to the prosecutor's office with a motion to recognize him as a victim. The prosecutor on the same day refused to grant the motion by a reasoned decision. According to the prosecutor's office, Davitadze's side did not appeal this decision either to a senior prosecutor or to court.

Within the investigation, phonovideoscopic and habitoscopic expertise was carried out. The expert decoded the video camera recordings in cell No. 6 of the de-escalation unit with frame-by-frame accuracy and fully reconstructed the actions performed during Davitadze's personal search. According to the conclusion, no action aimed at violence against Davitadze is recorded on the footage and there are no traces of editing.

The prosecutor's office writes that the evidence obtained reliably confirmed that the information provided by Davitadze to the investigation does not correspond to the truth and is in substantial contradiction with the evidence collected in the case.

On October 2 it became known that Davitadze, a prisoner of penitentiary facility N6 in Rustavi, accused guards of rape. The TV company Pirveli disseminated his audio recording from the appeals court, in which the prisoner says that after being moved to the de-escalation room "a guard raped him". According to him, the guards also verbally insulted him.

Later the penitentiary service disseminated 4.5-minute video footage without sound showing Davitadze's transfer to and stay in the de-escalation cell. According to the service, during the transfer to the de-escalation cell the convict undergoes an inspection, to which Davitadze "categorically refused and began verbally insulting the facility's employees". According to the agency's version, the employees then carried out the inspection by force, which was performed on the body using an electrodetector.

The penitentiary service called Davitadze's statements a lie. The director of the service, Giorgi Patarידze, thanked the employees of penitentiary facility No. 6 and said that in the video of Davitadze's transfer there was "not even an excess of force, let alone facts that damage dignity".

According to Davitadze's mother, the published video does not fully depict the incident. According to her, the material shown to the family by the prosecutor is about 20 minutes long.

On October 2 the Public Defender's Office stated that it had immediately passed the information about the alleged violence and verbal insults against Davitadze to the prosecutor's office, which had started an investigation. Acting Public Defender Levan Ioseliani, assessing the disseminated video footage, said that he found no "evidence of any type reflecting physical mistreatment or violence" in it.