Day: April 12, 2024
Lazare Grigoriadis pardoned in Georgia
President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili has pardoned activist Lazare Grigoriadis, who was sentenced to 9 years in prison. Grigoriadis was arrested in March 2023 following protests against the foreign agents law.
“I have decided that this young man cannot serve a 9-year sentence. I have not yet signed the pardon, but the decision has been made. I have been thinking about it for several days, but until there was a verdict, I couldn’t say anything,” said Salome Zourabichvili.
- “This is a bad law. It is neither European nor American.” – EU Ambassador on Georgia’s foreign agents law
- Georgia’s Parliament is debating the “foreign agents law,” risking its European future. Explainer
- Protester against Georgia’s foreign agents law sentenced to 9 years
Lazare Grigoriadis case
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.