Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has pardoned the convict Lazare Grigoriadis. The President issued the act of pardon today, and Lazare Grigoriadis is expected to be released from prison today.
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Tbilisi City Court Judge Zviad Sharadze announced the guilty verdict in the case of Lazare Grigoriadis on April 12. Grigoriadis was sentenced to nine years in prison. On the same day, the President announced in an interview with TV Pirveli TV that she will pardon Lazare Grigoriadis as soon as she received the resolution part of the sentence.
Afterward, Judge Zviad Sharadze stated that he would require 14 working days, the maximum period allowed by law, to deliver the resolution part of the verdict to the parties. The judge cited the large volume of the case as the reason for the delay. Prior to announcing the verdict, between January 15, 2024, and April 8, 2024, Judge Zviad Sharadze postponed the final court session three times.
On March 29, 2023, 21-year-old Lazare Grigoriadis was arrested by the police. The prosecutor's office accused Grigoriadis of throwing a Molotov cocktail at employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and setting fire to a car belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs during a rally against the Russian law on so-called Foreign Agents on Rustaveli Avenue on March 7.
The then Georgian Prime Minister, Irakli Gharibashvili, repeatedly violated the presumption of innocence of Lazare Grigoriadis. On April 3, the Prime Minister said that "he [Lazare] intended to burn the policeman alive." On June 30, during his speech in parliament, Gharibashvili once again declared Lazare Grigoriadis guilty: "It turned out that someone, dirty, I don't care who it is, decided to throw a Molotov cocktail directly at the police and burn them alive. I tell you this with indignation. I will be absolutely uncompromising here. We will not forgive anyone for such a thing. This is raising a hand against the state. Let everyone remember this well. Now come out and defend. Why don't they protect?! Why are they not released from prison?! No one can bring him out, no one can forgive this serious crime, who raises his hand against the police."
The Tbilisi City Court refused Lazare Grigoriadis three times to accept the lawsuit against Irakli Gharibashvili and the current chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze. Lazare Grigoriadis demanded the determination of the fact of defamation, the rejection of statements that hurt honor and dignity, and compensation for moral damages.
On September 25, 2023, Lazare Grigoriadis was sentenced to 18 months in prison for a crime that occurred two years ago. Grigoriadis was accused of stabbing his father. His lawyer stated that this verdict was also related to Grigoriadis's indictment in the case involving the Russian Law.
The lawyer stated that if the court proceedings on the charge of throwing a Molotov cocktail and setting fire to the MIA car could not be completed within 9 months after the indictment, Lazare Grigoriadis' term of pretrial detention would expire, and he should be released. "In the case of the accusation of wounding the father, the trial has not been scheduled for 3 years, and now it was scheduled only because of the guilty verdict," said the lawyer.
On November 22, 2023, police officers who were known to have been victims of the March 7-8 protests against the Russian Law appealed to the President of Georgia not to pardon Lazare Grigoriadis.
