Police officers injured at public rallies call on President not to pardon charged citizen

Police officers injured at public rallies held in Tbilisi earlier this year against a proposed bill on transparency of foreign influence on Wednesday asked President Salome Zourabichvili to refrain from pardoning Lazare Grigoriadis, a protester arrested for alleged assault on law enforcement.

The Interior Ministry said the affected officers had made the decision to appeal to Zourabichvili after reports Grigoriadis’ family and human rights defenders asked her to pardon him.

The police officers believe that the President pardoning the person who attacked them will create a perception in the public that attacks on defenders of public order will remain unpunished”, the statement said.

The officers in question also said the pardon would “convey a message” to the public that the state policy was “lenient” towards assault on police.

Police arrested Grigoriadis for his alleged assault on law enforcement and damage caused to their vehicle during the protests that erupted between March 7-9 in protest of the bill that proposed the registration of “non-commercial legal entities and media outlets as agents of foreign influence if they derive more than 20 percent of their income from abroad”. 

The Ministry said the 21-year-old had thrown stones and Molotov cocktails at law enforcement who were “ensuring safety” on the ground, before setting their vehicle on fire. 

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili called incidents of protesters attacking law enforcement at rallies “unacceptable” and a “red line on which we will be uncompromising”.