Georgia to scrap police abuse watchdog, experts call it 'cynical move'
Georgia shuts down police abuse watchdog
Georgia will abolish the special investigation service that handles cases of abuse of power by law enforcement officers. The agency will be merged with the prosecutor general’s office.
The service was established on March 1, 2022, as part of Georgia’s commitments to obtain EU candidate status. In April 2025, the UK imposed financial sanctions on its head, Koka Katsitadze, stating that he had either willfully or negligently failed to perform his official duties.
Legal expert Guram Imnadze called the decision to dissolve the service a “political and cynical move” and outlined his arguments.
Commentary
Legal expert Guram Imnadze: “Unfortunately, the Special Investigation Service has never had the functional independence necessary to fully and effectively investigate crimes committed by the police – especially high-ranking officers.
In addition to its structural limitations, its current head is a former senior prosecutor who, at the very least, faces a conflict of interest when it comes to impartially investigating his former colleagues.
Still, it would be a real loss to abolish the service altogether, because despite the political bias and other issues within the current leadership, many qualified and honest investigators work there.
Moreover, dissolving the agency would send a clear political message: the very political force that once promised to restore justice and end police violence is now openly declaring that police violence will no longer be investigated.
This abolition is a continuation of a cynical trend – the same trend in which [the Georgian Dream-appointed president] Mikheil Kavelashvili rewarded senior police officials responsible for orchestrating mass violence against protesters.
If the Special Investigation Service is indeed abolished, it will become even clearer to the general public that the Prosecutor’s Office — which has remained largely untouched — is in fact responsible for all the uninvestigated cases and the resulting impunity, as it holds all the levers necessary to conduct such investigations.”
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