Day: April 8, 2024

Сегодня, 8 апреля, у Тбилисского городского суда состоится митинг в поддержку Лазаре Григориадиса, задержанного во время мартовских протестов против «российского закона». К акции присоединяются гражданские движения «Талга» и «Джиути». Митинг начнется в 14:00, проведение заключительного судебного заседания по делу Григориадиса запланировано на 14:30 часов. Активисты «Талга» и «Джиути» заявляют, что будут протестовать против и против […]

В Тбилиси в Вазиани будет построен новый международный аэропорт. Об этом сегодня, 8 апреля, на заседании правительства сообщил премьер-министр Ираклий Кобахидзе. По его словам, на состоявшемся 6 апреля заседании Экономического совета обсуждались два варианта — расширение существующего аэропорта и строительство нового. В итоге выбор остановился на последнем. «Учитывая ряд факторов, в итоге мы приняли решение […]

#BRICS is an important organisation for the #SouthCaucasus #region because two major countries in the region –#Iran and #Russia – are members of this organization.https://t.co/K1T8xhq8Vf

— AzerNews (@AzerNewsAz) April 8, 2024

PM voices unity with “Abkhaz brothers and sisters” on Abkhazia Day  Agenda.ge

Lazare Grigoriadis verdict

Today, April 8, the Tbilisi City Court is set to announce the verdict in the case of Lazare Grigoriadis—the sole arrested participant of the mass protests that took place in the capital of Georgia in March 2023 against the ruling party’s initiated foreign agents law project.

Exactly a year has passed since Lazare Grigoriadis, aged 21, has been in prison since March 31.

From March 7 to 9, 2023, massive rallies against the foreign agent law were held in Tbilisi in front of the parliament building.

The investigation accuses Lazare Grigoriadis, who participated in these rallies, of causing harm to police officers’ health and destruction of state property.

According to the investigation, on March 7, 2023, during the rally, Grigoriadis twice threw Molotov cocktails (bottles containing flammable liquid) at the police, and on March 9, he set fire to a police car.

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• Gas, water cannons, arrests – Tbilisi against the law “on foreign agents.” Chronology and many photos
• Georgia’s ruling party reintroduces ‘foreign agents’ law to parliament

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If Grigoriadis is found guilty, he faces 7 to 11 years of imprisonment. Grigoriadis has already been sentenced to 1.5 years for domestic violence that occurred two years ago when he got into a fight with his father.

Grigoriadis’ lawyers and family are certain that the court will deliver a guilty verdict. However, they also hope that the country’s president will pardon Lazare.

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.

Photo: Formula

The sentencing of Lazare has been postponed several times. Once, the judge unexpectedly went on vacation, and another time, Grigoriadis refused to come to the courtroom and requested to participate remotely, which was denied.

After the hearing was rescheduled, Lazare’s mother, Tamta Kalandadze, said that he is struggling psychologically:

“Lazare told me he feels tense around crowds. When he tries to speak his mind, his thoughts wander, so he decided to participate in the final hearing remotely.”

In an exclusive interview with Radio Liberty in November 2023, Lazare himself also stated that being at the court hearing causes him intense anxiety.

Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev Reaffirms Support for Turkish Cypriots  Kıbrıs Postası

The meeting between representatives of Armenia, the European Union and the United States in Brussels was more symbolic than an immediate game changer in the peace process between Baku and Yerevan

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is rebuilding its activities in the Karabakh region, Ilaha Huseynova, head of the public relations department of the ICRC Office in Azerbaijan, said in response to Report’s inquiry.

Les Républicains (LR) deputies are to launch a commission of inquiry into the “sharp growth in debt” under “the presidency of Emmanuel Macron”, in the backdrop of high tension between the executive power and parliamentarians over the state of public finan

Command-staff exercise is held with servicemen of one of the military units

According to the training plan for 2024 approved by the Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, War Games Center hosted a computer-assisted command-staff exercise of one of the military units.
After specifying the tasks to be accomplished on the map in accordance with the plan, the interaction of the units and the interoperability of the headquarters as a central control body were checked, as well as the reports of the command staff on made decisions were heard.
With the application of modern and high-tech computer programs, the tasks set in the exercise were successfully fulfilled in order to increase the managing ability and flexible decision-making skills of the commanders, as well as to further improve the operation of the headquarters and the interaction between the units while bringing the units to various states of combat readiness.

Command-staff exercise is held with servicemen of one of the military units