Beka Grigoriadis has been fined 800 lari [about $300] for a Facebook LIVE statement. Grigoriadis is the father of Lazare Grigoriadis, who was arrested during protests in March against the law on foreign agents (the so-called “Russian law”).
According to the prosecution, Grigoriadis insulted a police officer in a video posted on the social network. The judge did not consider police actions to be a violation, but considered the defendant’s comments insulting.
Independent Georgian experts and lawyers have already stated that this decision carries the risk of restricting freedom of speech and self-expression on social networks.
“Beka Grigoriadis published a post on the social network. He did not name a single name when he talked about the policemen. However, one of the policemen, who appeared in court as a witness, considered that this was an insult to him. In addition, the policeman confirmed that the Facebook page of Beka Grigoriadis is checked very often,” a lawyer said.
A few days ago, new dangerous trends were revealed in the practice of applying the Code of Administrative Offenses, which is contrary to freedom of speech in the country. In particular, a citizen was fined 2,000 lari [about $760] because of the content of a video posted on TikTok, where he harshly criticized the actions of the Tbilisi traffic police.
On March 10, 2023, the Tbilisi City Court found one of the users of the social network TikTok, citizen I.P., a courier by profession, guilty of an administrative offense in connection with the content of the video he published and fined him.
According to SAIA, this decision can be considered a rather dangerous precedent, contrary to existing standards of freedom of speech and expression.
