Man Behind Police Violence Footage Leaks Jailed for 17 Years on Drug Charges

Georgian IT worker Giorgi Kvitsaridze, who was reportedly behind the leak of footage showing police abuse of detainees to opposition-leaning TV Pirveli, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison on serious drug charges, in what the family and lawyers allege to be retribution through drug planting and pressure. Kvitsaridze, 32, reportedly gained access to police internal chats and obtained video files depicting abuse, at least some of which Eter Khatiskatsi, his mother, handed to TV Pirveli months after his arrest on drug charges in December 2025. Kutaisi City Court Judge Ketevan Tkhelidze delivered the verdict in September and found Kvitsaridze guilty of “purchasing and possessing drugs in an especially large quantity and facilitating their sale.

” According to Otar Rukhadze, the lawyer of Kvitsaridze, the evidence presented in the case consisted primarily of testimony from the police officers who arrested and searched the IT worker. He said that Kvitsaridze “categorically denies” the charge of facilitating the sale of drugs. “As for the purchase and storage, he says he did use drugs and had a small amount, but according to him, the rest, the large quantity of narcotics, was planted on him by police at the time of his arrest,” he was quoted as saying by RFE/RL’s Georgian bureau. He further said that Kvitsaridze says that “all of this was orchestrated against him precisely because he obtained footage capturing instances of exceeding official powers by police. ” The case file also contains a forensic report stating that Kvitsaridze’s DNA trace was found on the packaging of the seized drugs. According to Rukhadze, however, Kvitsaridze disputes the finding and says his DNA should have been found only on the one package containing the drugs he possessed for “personal use. ”…