Assailant Ex-Priest Sentenced to 6-Year Imprisonment

On January 31 a Tbilisi court found Basil Mkalavishvili guilty of masterminding and carrying out organized violence against Jehovah’s Witnesses and Baptist-Evangelists and burning their religious literature and sentenced him to 6 years of imprisonment.

Basil Mkalavishvili was arrested in a police raid at a Church last March. Mkalavishvili was excommunicated in 1995, after he criticized the Orthodox Church leadership for not taking a ?radical stance? towards religious minorities.

Since that period Georgia has more frequently appeared in reports of international human right watchdog organizations as a country known for violent attacks against religious minorities, with Basil Mkalavishvili playing a key role in this religious extremism.