A prominent transgender model, actor and influencer has been brutally stabbed to death in Georgia.
Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was killed the day after parliament in the ex-Soviet state had passed a law banning LGBT propaganda, with her death sparking widespread outrage.
She suffered more than 50 stab wounds in the attack, which took place last night in her own home in the capital Tbilisi.
A male suspect, named as Beka Jaiani, 26, was detained at the city’s airport evidently seeking to leave Georgia, according to reports. He is said to have known the star.
CCTV footage allegedly shows him waiting by a lift in her apartment block, and then running down the stairs in the same building less than ten minutes later.
Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was killed the day after parliament in the ex-Soviet state had passed a law banning LGBT propaganda
The victim was a well-known and popular figure in Georgia after undergoing a sex change operation in 2014
Kesaria’s killing is the third high-profile murder of a transgender woman in Georgia in recent years
Neighbours heard screams and went to her apartment where they found her blood-drenched body.
The victim was a well-known and popular figure in Georgia after undergoing a sex change operation in 2014.
She had represented Georgia at Miss Trans Star International in 2018 and had more than half a million online followers.
Georgia’s President Salome Zurabishvili, who is against the new anti-LGBT laws, responded to news of Kesaria’s death: ‘A terrible murder! A denial of humanity!
‘Only this might sober up our society… Hopefully, the killing of this beautiful young woman will at least serve to make us more humane and Christian.’
Before having the sex change procedure, Kesaria froze her genetic material abroad, and intended to have a child.
Her killing is the third high-profile murder of a transgender woman in Georgia in recent years.
A male suspect, named as Beka Jaiani, 26, was detained at the city’s airport evidently seeking to leave Georgia, according to reports
The killing came after the country passed laws in lockstep with Russia banning same-sex marriages, adoption by same-sex couples, gender-affirming care, public endorsement of LGBTQ+ relations and people, and depictions of them in the media.
Pride events and public displays of the rainbow flag are outlawed, and censorship imposed on films and books.
The tough new laws face a veto from pro-Western President Zourabichvili, but this can still be overcome by a subsequent vote in parliament.
The bill is entitled ‘On Protection of Family Values and Minors’.
Human rights watchdog the Social Justice Center (SJC) said in its statement reacting to Kesaria’s killing: ‘There is a direct correlation between the use of hate speech in politics and hate crimes.
Kesaria posted to her Instagram story yesterday, just hours before her killing last night
Kesaria had represented Georgia at Miss Trans Star International in 2018 and had more than half a million online followers
‘It has been almost a year that the Georgian Dream government has been aggressively using homo/bi/transphobic language and cultivating it with mass propaganda means,’ it added.
‘It is certain that the policy of hate has serious consequences – harassment of LGBTI people, their marginalization and violence against them. The case of the murder of Kesaria Abramidze cannot be perceived without this general context.’
The British embassy in Tbilisi said of the new law: ‘The United Kingdom is seriously concerned by the adoption, in the third reading, of the legislative package on family values and protection of minors.
‘This package undermines fundamental human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and assembly and risks further stigmatisation and discrimination of part of the Georgian population.’