Lazare Grigoriadis, who was arrested in 2023 in connection with anti-government protests and later released by a presidential pardon, has been detained again on criminal charges of threatening bar staff.
Initial reports about the detention of 24-year-old Grigoriadis appeared on Friday. The Prosecutor General’s Office officially announced charges against him in a statement the following day.
According to the agency, on Friday, near the entrance of a bar located in Tbilisi, Grigoriadis, allegedly dissatisfied after being removed from the premises, ‘threatened a bar employee with death and bodily harm’ while brandishing a knife.
‘Law enforcement officers detained the accused on the same day’, the agency’s statement read.
According to the agency, Grigoriadis has been criminally charged, which could result in up to one year of imprisonment, but also allows for a fine, community service, or house arrest. However, in their statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office mentioned only the option of imprisonment.
Grigoriadis had been living abroad for the past period and had only returned to Georgia a few days before his detention — something confirmed by one of his family members in conversation with OC Media. According to the family, he already has a lawyer.
Grigoriadis gained public prominence in March 2023, following protests triggered by the ruling Georgian Dream party’s first attempt to pass a controversial foreign agents law — branded by critics as ‘Russian law’ due to its similarity to legislation used to crush civil society in Russia.
He was detained soon after the protests and sentenced in April 2024 to nine years in prison on charges of arson and attacking a police officer. Hours after the verdict, then-President Salome Zourabichvili, who by that time was already a fierce opponent of the ruling party, announced her decision to pardon Grigoriadis.
Georgian Dream and its allies harshly condemned Zourabichvili for her decision, with then-Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili calling Grigoriadis an ‘extremist’. Critics, meanwhile, have claimed that the case was politicised from the outset.
Both Gharibashvili and current Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze insisted on Grigoriadis’ guilt long before the judge found him guilty.
Kobakhidze also suggested that Grigoriadis had his ‘orientations all messed up’, while pro-government channels frequently shared images of him that made prominent his distinctive facial tattoos, bleached hair, and jewellery.
After his release, Grigoriadis continued participating in anti-government demonstrations. He was detained again for 48 hours in May 2024 on charges of disobeying police orders and petty hooliganism, during the renewed push to reintroduce and pass the foreign agents law. He was later fined in the same case.
