Become an OC Media MemberSupport independent journalism in the Caucasus:
Join Today
Media logo
beka tsikarishvili

beka tsikarishvili

4 Posts
0 Followers
Georgian actor sentenced to 8 years on drug charges
beka tsikarishvili

Georgian actor sentenced to 8 years on drug charges

O

Tbilisi City Court sentenced actor Giorgi ‘Bakhala’ Giorganashvili to eight years in prison on 23 January on drug charges. Giorganashvili had claimed that police had planted the drugs on him. Giorganashvili was arrested on 29 January 2017 for ‘possession of 0.3726 grammes of buprenorphine’, an opioid used to treat opioid addiction, while travelling from western Georgia to Tbilisi. After hearing the court’s ruling, Beka Tsikarishvili, a drug reform icon, threw a brick at the courthouse

Parliamentary hearing on drug liberalisation postponed
beka tsikarishvili

Parliamentary hearing on drug liberalisation postponed

O

Parliamentary hearings around Georgia’s drug decriminalisation bill, scheduled to take off on 28 November, have been postponed. The move has prompted anger amongst the authors of the bill and drug policy activists. According to the White Noise Movement (WNM), a group campaigning for a softer drug policy and a co-author of the bill, the authors were only notified of the postponement late evening on 27 November, and were given no explanation. A number of parties, including non-government po

Georgia’s ‘war against the people’ and the war against a ‘system that stinks’
activism

Georgia’s ‘war against the people’ and the war against a ‘system that stinks’

D

Georgia, a country where every third prisoner is serving time for drugs, may be about to transform its strict drug policy into a far more liberal system. Activists and reformers are hoping that new legislation could change Georgia’s system away from what they call ‘the war against the people’. On 15 September 2016, a 46-year-old man slashed his own stomach outside the Georgian Government Chancellery, where dozens had gathered to protest the country’s drug policy. He claimed police had terro

Drug reform icon Beka Tsikarishvili avoids jail for cannabis possession
beka tsikarishvili

Drug reform icon Beka Tsikarishvili avoids jail for cannabis possession

O

Tbilisi City Court has fined Beka Tsikarishvili, who became an icon for drug reform activists in the country, with ₾2,000 ($820) for possession of 69 grammes of cannabis. Tsikarisvhili was also banned from driving, teaching, or practicing law for the next five years, and from working in the medical and pharmaceutical sector for 10 years. Following the verdict, Tsikarishvili posted a photo on Facebook saying ‘this is not over, time to decriminalise’]. ‘I am thankful that I shared the pai

Editor‘s Picks