12 arrested, 13 venues shut down in crackdown on prostitution in Tbilisi, Samegrelo region

As a result of complex investigative actions, the Central Criminal Police Department of Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, in cooperation with the General Prosecutor’s Office, on Wednesday arrested 12 individuals and closed 13 facilities in Tbilisi and the Samegrelo region on charges of facilitating prostitution and providing premises for prostitution.

Tornike Marsagishvili, the Head of the Anti-Trafficking and Illegal Migration Division of the Main Division for Combating Organised Crime of the Central Criminal Police Department, noted that among those detained persons were both Georgian and Chinese citizens.

“Evidence obtained as a result of covert investigative actions, in particular, audio and video recordings, confirmed that venue managers and administrators were systematically facilitating prostitution”, Marsagishvili said.

“The investigation also revealed that the administrators of the aforementioned facilities assisted women involved in prostitution in finding clients, and in return, they received money from the remuneration for providing sexual services”, he continued.

Law enforcement officers seized money believed to have been obtained through the facilitation of prostitution as evidence during searches.

Authorities noted that the primary source of income for the shuttered venues was derived from prostitution-related activities.

The offenses carry penalties of up to four years in prison under Article 254 of Georgia’s Criminal Code, which criminalizes the facilitation of prostitution and the provision of premises for prostitution.