The hearing, broadcast live on Beka Grigoriadis’ Facebook account, takes place on December 15 in a court in Tbilisi, Georgia. Arrested by police ten days earlier for protesting against a government bill aimed at “limit temporary constructions during demonstrations”, Beka, 42, awaits trial. When the verdict falls, he lifts his sweater in the room revealing long horizontal cuts on his stomach. “My client cut his stomach in protestconfirms his lawyer, Lasha Shukakidze. His condition is quite serious. »
Since May 28, Beka has pitched her tent behind the Georgian Parliament. He is demanding the release of his son, Lazare Grigoriadis, imprisoned since March 29 for damages he allegedly committed during demonstrations against the adoption of the controversial law on “foreign agents”, which shook the country in March. Since then, the 21-year-old young man has become the face of Georgian youth perceived as a threat by the majority pro-Russian party in government, Georgian Dream.
Nicknamed “Russian law” by the opposition, the bill sparked, from March 7 to 9, a protest movement of more than 100,000 people, mainly made up of young people, in front of Parliament. After two nights of severe repression, the government gave in to pressure from the streets: the bill was withdrawn unconditionally, and the 133 citizens arrested were released. But Georgian Dream knows itself to be weakened.
“Decadent West”
In an interview broadcast on television on March 12, Prime Minister Irakli Garibachvili described the young people who participated in the demonstrations as “Satanists”whose aim is to “maintain permanent destabilization”. Three weeks later, Lazare Grigoriadis was arrested.
Dyed hair, piercings and tattoos in the shape of rays of sunlight around the eyes: for Georgian Dream, who launched a crusade against a “Decadent West”, he has everything of the ideal culprit. Accused of having thrown two Molotov cocktails at police officers and setting one of their cars on fire, he risks up to eleven years in prison.
“Arrested for example”
The chairman of the Georgian Dream party, Irakli Kobakhidze, even appeared in court, where he called Lazarus a “disoriented young man who got lost”. A few days later, and while the accused had only been identified by his initials by the prosecutor, the pro-government television channel POSTV broadcast an image of the young man wearing makeup and raising his middle finger. The channel indicates that he is a member of the pro-European opposition party Droa, founded by Elene Khoshtaria; information quickly denied by the latter.
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