Tbilisi City Court fined Beka Grigoriadis, the father of Lazare Grigoriadis, the arrested participant of a mass protest against the Russian-sourced law on “foreign agents”, 800 GEL for swearing at police officers on Facebook.
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On June 7, an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - a tourist safety inspector drew up a report against Grigoriadis under Articles 166 and 173 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for disorderly conduct and disobedience to the legal request of a police officer while performing official duties, or insulting him. According to the police record, on June 3, Beka Grigoriadis insulted the police officers on social network, in particular, he used “swear words” in their address.
As lawyer Nestan Londaridze stated, in the video published on Facebook, Beka Grigoriadis spoke about the police and did not mention the name and surname of a specific officer, although the policeman interviewed as a witness in court said that he took the insults personally.
Judge Koba Chagunava found Grigoriadis guilty only on the count of disorderly conduct. As he explained, the fact of insulting the policeman did not take place during the performance of his duty.
Georgian courts are establishing a practice of imposing fines for statements made on social media. In March 2023, the Tbilisi City Court and Kutaisi Court of Appeal found two citizens guilty of cursing at policemen on TikTok and Facebook. One was fined 2000 GEL, the other - 2500.
Irakli Miladze posted a video on TikTok, where he expressed his strong discontent with Tbilisi’s transport policy and swore at Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze. He was criticizing people who are using bus lanes to get around, where driving is prohibited regardless of job position, and swore at police officers who are selectively fining citizens and not holding government workers and people close to them accountable for their violations. The Tbilisi City Court deemed social networks a place of public gathering, where any person is “obliged to follow ethical and moral norms accepted by society.” The court said that a particular police officer saw the video published by Irakli Miladze and took offense.
Kutaisi Court of Appeals also pressed charges against a citizen who published a post on his personal Facebook page that “insulted the police officers and their dignity with obscene words.”
“One of the (if not the only) most comfortable places for public communication and gathering is the social network, and physical presence is not necessarily required for committing acts of petty hooliganism when all the signs of a violation of the law are apparent in the action taken by a person on the social network”, explained the Court of Appeal.
The court deemed that the time and circumstances of insulting the police officer are irrelevant.
According to the assessment by the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association, these rulings by the court set dangerous precedents that go against the existing standards of freedom of speech and expression.
