Tbilisi City Court Judge Nino Nachkhebia has ruled that Lazare Grigoriadis is guilty of assaulting his father, Beka Grigoriadis, with a knife. He has been sentenced to a one-and-a-half-year prison term. The incident, which occurred in 2021, involved Lazare Grigoriadis injuring his father and damaging the rear-view mirror of his car.
As per the judge’s decision, the initial charge against Grigoriadis under Article 11 Prima 120 of the Criminal Code, which pertains to the intentional infliction of minor injuries, has been reclassified as violence against a family member. Grigoriadis has been found guilty of the charge under the first part of Article 187, which addresses the act of damaging or destroying another person’s property (specifically a car), resulting in substantial damage.
While Lazare Grigoriadis has acknowledged his guilt regarding the charges, his father, during the hearing, claimed to have been heavily intoxicated and asserted that “the child had nothing to do with it.” For violating the court’s decorum, the judge ordered Beka Grigoriadis to be removed from the courtroom.
Lazare Grigoriadis was arrested on March 29, following the March 7-9 mass protests in Tbilisi against the Foreign Agents’ Law. He was arrested for allegedly for allegedly throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at police. On 31 March, the court sentenced Lazare Grigoriadis to preventive detention.
His arrest was viewed as controversial and sparked peaceful protests, as it was viewed as a retribution of the system against youth and civil activists who took part in the March protests. His lawyers and defenders argued that Grigoriadis is innocent and was typecast for his appearance to fit the description of the “satanist” and “disoriented” youth that the ruling party leadership vilified after the protests. The defense reportedly filed civil suits for defamation against both Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the ruling party chair, Irakli Kobakhidze.
Also Read: