"I feel sorry for the person on a human level — he was injured and lost his eyesight. On the other side, here we are, as if we are somehow responsible for this," — said actor Andro Chichinadze, who is detained on charges of participating in group violence, during a court hearing where the injured detective, Giorgi Zabakhidze, was being questioned.

The police officer witness testified that he lost vision in one eye after being hit by a stone thrown by protesters.

The defendants claim they had no involvement in injuring the officer.

"We didn’t harm anyone… I think this person has been misled. We had no contact with him or with any of the others who will testify. The court should not have admitted these people — we are not connected to their injuries, and it is the court’s mistake. I feel sorry for the man — he was injured and lost his vision — but now we’re made to look like we are to blame,” Chichinadze said. In response, Judge Nino Galustashvili stated that the court is precisely the place to investigate such matters.

Defendant Revaz Kiknadze questioned the police officer, asking whether he ruled out the possibility that the object that hit him came from a special forces officer. The officer denied that possibility.

"When I was there, the special forces were not deployed at all, so it couldn’t have come from them," said Zabakhidze.

Kiknadze also asked him whether he saw any specific individual trying to break into Parliament.

"On the street where I was — Chichinadze Street — we didn’t allow the protesters to enter the Parliament. I didn’t see a specific individual — it was a mass of people pushing against us," Zabakhidze replied. The defendant followed up by asking whether that was just his assumption or a fact.

"I knew it as a fact," answered the police officer.

For context, the case of actor Andro Chichinadze — arrested during protests near Parliament for participating in group violence — has been merged with the case of humorist Onise Tskhadadze and 9 other individuals.

The arrested individuals — Andro Chichinadze, Onise Tskhadadze, Jano Archaia, Ruslan Sivakov, Luka Jabua, Guram Mirtskhulava, Valeri Tetrishvili, Giorgi Terishvili, Irakli Kerashvili, Revaz Kiknadze, and Sergei Kukharchuk — are charged under Article 225, Part 2 of the Georgian Criminal Code, which concerns participation in group violence.

This crime carries a sentence of 4 to 6 years in prison.