On January 29, 2017, well-known actor and TV host Giorgi Giorganashvili (known as Bakhala) was arrested while returning to Tbilisi from western Georgia. He was accused of possessing 0.3726 grams of the narcotic substance buprenorphine. Under Georgian law, the charge of possessing an “especially large amount” of narcotics carried a sentence of 8 to 20 years or life imprisonment. The actor denied the charges and refused a plea deal. His lawyer claimed that police had planted the drugs after Bakhula refused to cooperate in another case involving the smuggling of narcotics from Turkey using an ambulance.

After his arrest, Bakhala was placed in pretrial detention. Nearly five months later, on July 14, 2017, he was released on bail of 20,000 GEL pending the court’s final decision.

To protest the country’s harsh drug policy and show support for the actor, the “White Noise Movement” organized a rally in Tbilisi’s Dedaena Park on July 13, 2017, under the slogan “Together for Bakhala.” Protesters argued that the drugs had been planted on him.

On January 23, 2018, Judge Shorena Guntsadze of the Tbilisi City Court sentenced Bakhala to eight years in prison. He was taken into custody in the courtroom. After the hearing, in the court’s yard, two of his supporters—Tornike Bziava and Beka Tsikarishvili—were detained for “verbal insults” and throwing stones at the building. (Bziava later received a two-week sentence.)

During discussions of the case in parliament, Akaki Zoidze, the chair of the Health Committee (from the ruling Georgian Dream party), stated: “When dealing is not proven and a person gets eight years in prison, the law is inhumane.”

That same day, a petition was launched calling on the president to pardon Bakhula.

Further protests were held on January 25 under the slogan “All for One” in Tbilisi and other cities—Batumi, Kutaisi, and Zugdidi. NGOs and activists demanded the release of Bakhula and Beka Tsikarishvili, the punishment of police officers involved, and the adoption of a more humane drug policy.

A new case and accusation

The next day, January 24, the Prosecutor’s Office announced a new investigation, claiming that the son of the director of the Emergency Medical Center, Irakli Koridze, had been smuggling narcotics from Turkey together with Giorgi Giorganashvili, using an ambulance. The case involved 843 tablets of narcotic substances. The ambulance driver, Jaba Khulordava, was also arrested—his testimony allegedly proved that Koridze and Giorganashvili acted together.

Koridze was arrested and placed in pretrial detention but denied guilt. On March 31, Bakhula was charged again—this time with “purchasing, possessing, and importing large quantities of narcotics as part of an organized group.” His lawyers argued that the new charge was fabricated to cover up the earlier “planting” of drugs.

The case ended on December 28, 2018, when Judge Giorgi Arevadze of the Tbilisi City Court found Bakhala not guilty, while sentencing Koridze to 15 years in prison. Despite one defendant being acquitted, the other was convicted of “group crime.”

Koridze had previously served time for a similar offense but was released in 2014 under a presidential pardon by Giorgi Margvelashvili. His re-arrest coincided with tensions between the president and the ruling party, which accused him of abusing the pardon power; Khoridze was often cited as an example because of alleged family ties with Margvelashvili.

Four years later, in 2022, the Supreme Court judges Lali Papashvili, Shalva Tadumadze, and Mamuka Vasadze overturned Koridze’s conviction and acquitted him—but he did not live to see it, having died of cancer in prison.

On June 11, 2022, the media reported that Bakhala’s sentence had been reduced by one-quarter (two years) under the amnesty law. During his final ten months of imprisonment, he was allowed to spend weekends at home under a special regime.