Court leaves alleged assailant of opposition party leader in custody

The District Court in the central Georgian municipality of Gori on Monday ruled to keep the individual arrested for assault on Zurab Girchi Japaridze, the leader of the Girchi - More Freedom opposition party, in the locality on Saturday in custody, ahead of hearings in the case.

The Court accepted the prosecution’s request to keep the alleged offender in custody, with the preliminary hearing for the case scheduled for Saturday.

Defence had asked the judge for bail or release of the defendant, who attended the decision, ahead of the upcoming hearings.

The arrested individual has been charged with assaulting Japaridze in the parking lot of a supermarket on the Tbilisi-Senaki-Leselidze highway in the municipality, before law enforcement forces arrested the offender. 

Police interviewed the politician following the incident, while the alleged perpetrator took responsibility for the attack in a social media post later during the day of the alleged assault by telling his followers the politician had been “beaten for perverting our children, for insulting the [Catholicos Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church] and the Church”.

He is facing up to a year in prison if found guilty.