“I don’t care about his hair color, orientation, or anything else. The state will be merciless and uncompromising against anyone who raises a hand on our police. Everyone should remember this,” stated the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, about Lazare Grigoriadis, the arrested participant of the March protests against the Russian-sourced law on “foreign agents.”
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During his June 30 speech at the parliament, Garibashvili, violating the presumption of innocence, once again declared Lazare Grigoriadis guilty before the court's verdict.
“Some filthy guy throws a Molotov cocktail at the police car and tries to burn the officer alive. I don’t care who he is. I am appalled. I will be absolutely firm and uncompromising here. We will not forgive anyone for such a thing. This is an attack against the state. Let everyone know this.
Why are they not defending him now? Why are they not rescuing him from prison? No one can get him out of prison. No one will forgive this serious crime those who raise their hands against the police. This has nothing to do with hair color or orientation. We are not taking that into account. Others came out here and said that I called the youth Satanists. This is a big lie. You can pull out my interview and see for yourselves; I said the following and I take responsibility for it: I said that we looked into police records and the history of several young people, wearing weird attire and so on, and discovered that there are certain sects involving misguided children, to tell you simply. This young man could have been a member of this anarchist group. I don’t care if he is young or old or anything else. I don’t care about anyone. I made my main point, and everyone should remember that we will not allow anarchy and chaos,” said Garibashvili.
He also added that the investigation into the March protests is still ongoing and will go to the end.
“We keep an eye on everyone and everything... They created these anarchist organizations, called “Franklin's Club, in reality, it was Levan Ramishvili's club, “Kmara” movement's club so that young people would associate with America and Benjamin Franklin. Wasn’t this another sham? Where is the Franklin Club today? Where are the anarchist organizations? Why are you not acting and defending these young people after you used and ditched them? I know for sure that they used these kids and others; made them throw Molotov cocktails. We accessed the chats and have all the information. Do you think someone is planning something and we are not aware of it? We know everything and have everything under control when it comes to illegal activity,” said Garibashvili, and added in response to opposition MP that the chats were accessed as part of the investigation.
Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs arrested 21-year-old Lazare Grigoriadis on March 29. He is charged with endangering a police officer while on duty and destroying state property. According to the case materials, on March 7, at around 11:15 p.m., during the rally on Rustaveli Avenue, Lazare Grigoriadis threw two so-called Molotov cocktails at the employees of the Special Tasks Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who were on duty, on April 9 Street, as a result of which both received various types of burns. In addition, the prosecutor's office alleges that on the night of March 9, on Chanturia Street, the defendant intentionally set fire to a Toyota Corolla belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which burned down on the spot. The prosecution claims that 39,500 GEL property damage was caused to the state budget by burning the car. The prosecutor's office published the video footage taken at the rallies as evidence and claimed that the young man depicted in the footage is Lazare Grigoriadis.
Lazare Grigoriadis is currently in pretrial detention. If found guilty, he faces 7 to 11 years in prison. The defense side claims that there is no direct evidence in this case that would prove the guilt of the defendant.
