Giorgi Revazishvili (judoka)

Giorgi Revazishvili (judoka)

Giorgi Revazishvili (born 16 November 1974) is a Georgian judoka.Giorgi Revazishvili, has been arrested and convicted on the charges of extortion of USD 8,000 from Greek businessman in Tbilisi.

After the court passed decision to imprison the perpetrators their friends, mainly wrestlers and relatives destroyed the court hall and blocked the central Rustaveli Avenue of Tbilisi. Riot police was deployed to the streets first time since the ‘rose revolution’ and soon police dispersed the demonstration.1 The arrest of the wrestlers resulted into the protest of other sportsmen. Some of them even refused to take part in preparatory training for the World Championship in wrestling. Nestor Khergiani, two times champion of Europe in judo, stated: “we are not going to wrestle! Let the government officials wrestle instead of us”.2

Later on, Zviad Zviadauri, Olympic champion in Judo and Dilar Khabuliani, former Minister of Interior and president of Judo Federation apologized to the President Saakashvili for the riots.