Prosecutor Office arrests Asaval-Dasavali newspaper representative Dito Chubinidze on treason and sabotage charges

Georgia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has arrested Domenti (Dito) Chubinidze, a representative of the newspaper Asaval-Dasavali, under a court order on charges of treason against the homeland, specifically sabotage.

Speaking at a briefing at the Prosecutor General’s Office, Beka Kvitsiani, Deputy Head of the Investigative Division, said that since February 2026, Chubinidze had been systematically disseminating false and disinformation-based reports through various media outlets and social media platforms. Kvitsiani said Chubinidze had relied on fabricated claims to allege that Georgia’s prime minister had transferred part of the David Gareji Monastery complex to the Republic of Azerbaijan under a secret agreement with a neighboring state.

“An investigation conducted by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia has conclusively established that the state border is determined through an international treaty or agreement concluded with a neighboring state, which subsequently requires ratification by the Parliament of Georgia. The authority to conduct negotiations and make decisions on the delimitation and demarcation of the border rests exclusively with the Government Commission on the Delimitation and Demarcation of Georgia’s State Border.

Within the commission’s mandate, no agreement has yet been reached with the neighboring state on determining and establishing the border in the section encompassing the David Gareji Monastery complex. The aforementioned legal procedures also rule out, even in theory, the possibility of the prime minister unilaterally transferring territory to another state,” Kvitsiani said.

He added that, despite this, Chubinidze had repeatedly linked the death of his interviewee, Lazare Jorbenadze, to an alleged revenge killing in an attempt to make the fabricated story about the transfer of Georgian territory to a neighboring state appear credible to the public. According to Kvitsiani, Chubinidze claimed that Jorbenadze had been killed because he had made public information incriminating the prime minister.

“Through these actions, Domenti Chubinidze deliberately committed sabotage to the detriment of the legitimate interests of the Georgian state, obstructing the normal functioning of a state institution and the Government Commission on the Delimitation and Demarcation of Georgia’s State Border,” Kvitsiani said.

Based on evidence gathered during the investigation, Chubinidze will be formally charged with treason against the homeland, specifically sabotage, an offense punishable by up to four years in prison.

The Prosecutor’s Office said it would apply to the court within the legally prescribed timeframe to seek pretrial detention as a preventive measure.

“The investigation is ongoing, and we will provide the public with further information about its progress and results,” Kvitsiani said.