A court in Tbilisi sentenced special forces officer Gorm (Gogo) Kirkitadze to five years in prison for attacking a Formula channel journalist, Gorm Rugba, while covering anti-government demonstrations in November 2024.
Rugby reported this on his Facebook page.
According to the journalist, prosecutor Lasha Gamkrilidze "suddenly" informed him today about the verdict: before that, the prosecutor's office did not keep in touch with him, even though he was recognized as a victim in the case. Rugby also stated that he expected to be interrogated during the trial, but this did not happen.
Rugby does not trust the materials of the case, which will be examined behind closed doors. He called the evidence presented "blank slates" and said that he believes the investigation is an attempt to hide the actual circumstances of the attack from the public.
"The real attacker is still free and since he was involved in other high-profile cases, he enjoys guarantees of immunity from the regime," said the journalist.
The attack took place on November 29, 2024, a day after mass demonstrations began against the decision of the Georgian Dream government to postpone until 2028 the process of negotiations on Georgia's accession to the European Union.
At that moment, Rugby broadcast live from the scene and spoke about police violence. As a result of the attack, the journalist suffered fractures in the facial bones and the arch of the seventh vertebra of the neck. He spent several days in the hospital.
A year and a half later, in May 2026, prosecutors announced that they had filed charges against five people in connection with violence against three people during the 2024 protests. One of the episodes was the attack in Rugby.
A few days earlier, the Formula TV channel published a journalistic investigation in which the alleged attacker was called a special forces officer with the initials I.S.