A prominent transgender model, actor and influencer was brutally stabbed to death in Georgia.
Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was killed the day after the former Soviet state’s parliament passed a law banning LGBT propaganda, 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 suspect, named Beka Jaiani, 26, was detained at the city’s airport, apparently because he wanted to leave Georgia, according to reports. He is said to have known the star.
CCTV footage allegedly shows him waiting in a lift at his 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 the former Soviet state’s parliament passed a law banning LGBT propaganda.
The victim was a well-known and popular figure in Georgia after undergoing sex reassignment surgery in 2014.
Kesaria’s murder is the third high-profile murder of a transgender woman in Georgia in recent years.
Neighbors heard screams and went to her apartment where they found her body soaked in blood.
The victim was a well-known and popular figure in Georgia after undergoing sex reassignment surgery in 2014.
She represented Georgia at Miss Trans Star International in 2018 and had over half a million followers online.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who is against the new anti-LGBT laws, responded to the news of Kesaria’s death: “A terrible murder! A denial of humanity!”
“This alone could make our society more sensitive… Let us hope that the murder of this beautiful young woman will at least serve to make us more human and Christian.”
Before undergoing the sex-change procedure, Kesaria froze her genetic material abroad and intended to have a child.
Her murder is the third high-profile killing of a transgender woman in Georgia in recent years.
A suspect, named as Beka Jaiani, 26, was detained at the city’s airport, apparently trying to leave Georgia, according to reports.
The murder came after the country passed laws in line with Russia banning same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples, gender-affirming care, public support for LGBTQ+ relationships and people, and media depictions of them.
Pride events and public displays of the rainbow flag are banned, and censorship is 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 the protection of family values and minors.”
The Social Justice Centre (SJC), a human rights watchdog, said in its statement reacting to Kesaria’s murder: “There is a direct correlation between the use of hate speech in politics and hate crimes.
Kesaria posted on her Instagram story yesterday, just hours before her murder last night.
Kesaria had represented Georgia at Miss Trans Star International in 2018 and had over half a million followers online.
“It has been almost a year since the Georgian Dream government has been aggressively using homo/bi/transphobic language and cultivating it with mass propaganda media,” he added.
“It is true that hate politics has serious consequences: harassment of LGBTI people, marginalization and violence against them. The case of the murder of Kesaria Abramidze cannot be understood without this general context.”
The British Embassy in Tbilisi said of the new law: ‘The UK is seriously concerned about the adoption, at third reading, of the legislative package on family values and the protection of minors.
“This package undermines fundamental human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, and risks leading to further stigmatisation and discrimination of a part of the Georgian population.”
