Tbilisi City Court sentenced 22-year-old Lazare Grigoriadis to 9 years in prison. He was arrested in March 2023 after protests against Georgia‘s foreign agents law.
His lawyer, Lika Bitadze, plans to appeal the decision in the appellate court. While she doesn’t hold much hope for a different outcome, she anticipates it may ultimately need to be taken to the European Court of Human Rights:
“Everything happened exactly as the defense anticipated. In this case, the court made a completely unfair, unsubstantiated, and shameful decision. We will file an appeal, though we expect the appellate court to uphold the city court’s decision unless the president pardons Lazare.“
Grigoriadis’s mother, Tamta Kalandadze, also expresses that the nine-year prison term was an expected verdict. She intends to appeal to the president for clemency.
On March 31, it will be exactly one year since Lazare Grigoriadis, then 21 years old, has been in prison. Grigoriadis is the sole arrested participant in the March 2023 protests.
From March 7-9, 2023, massive rallies against the “foreign agents” law took place in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi.
Lazare Grigoriadis, who participated in these protests, is accused of committing a serious criminal offense—inflicting bodily harm on police officers and destroying state property.
According to the investigation, on March 7, during the rally, Grigoriadis threw Molotov cocktails at the police twice, and on March 9, he set fire to a police car.
Even before the case was discussed, leaders of the ruling party “Georgian Dream,” including former and current prime ministers Irakli Garibashvili and Irakli Kobakhidze, made statements against Grigoriadis. Lazare filed a lawsuit against them, seeking compensation for moral damages, but the court dismissed it.
In the footage used by the prosecution against Grigoriadis, a masked man wearing a cap and a hoodie is visible, making it impossible to identify him. Moreover, the expert who identified Grigoriadis in the video and wrote a “categorical conclusion” that it was indeed Grigoriadis, has only two years of work experience. Grigoriadis himself and his defense claim that he did not throw the Molotov cocktail.
The opposition and civil society representatives are convinced that the authorities simply “picked” Grigoriadis as the culprit because he “fits” into this role due to his tattoos, non-Georgian surname, and past convictions.
