"What kind of absurdity is this? Look at this, Giorgi Gakharia, who was the prime minister, was kicked around by ten men, beaten, and there was no case of political persecution – no, they initiated a case under article 126 for assault, and they initiated a case for political persecution against me. Anyone tell me, who knows who this Ali Babaev is?!", said Aleko Elisashvili, one of the leaders of the 'Strong Georgia' party, speaking to journalists at the city court.

As he remarked after the session, the charges against him are absurd and are being used by the government to arrest him, and he doesn't rule out the possibility of being detained.

"It's a fact that they haven't arrested me today. On February 6, there will be the next session, substantive discussion, with a three-year article. It's absolutely absurd that I supposedly 'assaulted' Ali Babaev. If you ask anyone, who the hell is Ali Babaev, who supposedly was such a political figure that I lost my mind over his political activity, attacked him in the street, and here it is… he insulted me, and I reacted. Moreover, look at how absurd it is: Giorgi Gakharia, who was prime minister, was kicked around by ten men, beaten, and there was no case of political persecution – no, they initiated a case under article 126 for assault, and against me, they initiated a case for political persecution. Imagine, so Gakharia is not a politician and wasn't politically attacked, and it turns out that Ali Babaev is the politician. Anyone tell me, who knows who the hell Ali Babaev is?! Accordingly, the government is using this to try to arrest me. I want to tell the 'tough guys' that I'm not afraid, I was there, and I saw, there's nothing particularly dangerous there. I'm ready for arrest and even for jail. I don’t know what’s cooking in their heads, only God knows, but the fact is, the charge against me is wrong."

"Gakharia was beaten, and that wasn’t political persecution, and the case was opened under another article, while when I hit someone, who nobody knows who Ali Babaev is, because he insulted me multiple times – they say I'm politically persecuting him. Ali Babaev is the politician, and Gakharia is not. Of course, that’s absurd. If they want to arrest me, arrest me, I'm not afraid, I'm right here," said Elisashvili.

Aleko Elisashvili's preventive detention was changed to a 4000-lari bail following the prosecution's motion.

For reference, Aleko Elisashvili was charged under part "a" of article 156 of the Georgian Criminal Code (persecution of a person based on political activity with violence), which carries a penalty of up to three years of imprisonment.

The incident occurred on December 2. According to the prosecution, Aleko Elisashvili verbally and physically assaulted Ali Babaev, the chairman of the Azerbaijani National Congress and one of the founders of the "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia" party, in the vicinity of Kostava Street in Tbilisi on political grounds.