At a protest rally, detained Jano Archaia addressed the prosecutor: “You haven’t brought a single victim who would point a finger at us. Did you not like my laughter, or why is it that we’ve been in prison for eight months?”

“I want to know from the prosecutor: we’ve been in prison for eight months, and you haven’t brought a single victim who would point a finger at us. Did you not like my laughter, or why is it that we’ve been in prison for eight months?” said Jano Archaia, one of the individuals detained on charges of participating in group violence during protest rallies, addressing the prosecutor during a court hearing.

Today’s court session continued with the examination of the prosecution’s evidence. Expert Valerian Meskhi was questioned, and videos that underwent expert analysis are being reviewed.

When presenting the videos, the prosecution identified the defendants allegedly visible in the footage.

“The video shows a face, as confirmed by the expert. You are not an expert. The expert says it’s Irakli Kerashvili,” said Prosecutor Vazha Tidua in response to lawyer Zaza Vacharadze.

According to lawyer Vacharadze, he does not believe the expert’s claim that the person in the video is Kerashvili.

“He said he identified him by distinguishing features, and to be honest, I still don’t believe what he said and confirmed—that it’s Irakli Kerashvili… If there was a shooting now, are you saying Irakli Kerashvili fired?” Vacharadze asked the prosecutor, to which the prosecutor responded:

“It’s clear they’re shooting, isn’t it?” This was followed by Vacharadze’s retort: “So, they’re shooting!”

During the examination of the evidence, another lawyer, Irakli Chomakhishvili, noted that law enforcement officers were also throwing objects, to which Prosecutor Vazha Tidua responded that “the police were not throwing objects; they were clearing the road of barricades.”

Another lawyer, Omar Purtseladze, also spoke about the presented evidence during the session.

“You haven’t presented a single piece of evidence. If you continue talking about things that aren’t confirmed, we’ll have to respond that it’s not true. Not a single piece of evidence has been presented showing that Irakli Kerashvili is throwing anything,” Purtseladze stated.

One of the defendants, Valerian Tetrashvili, also raised questions about the evidence, addressing the prosecutor:

“Explain to me, what am I doing wrong in that video? You’re trying to pin nonsense on us. It’s really ‘breaking’ me!” Tetrashvili said.

According to lawyer Tornike Migineishvili, there were threats from the police toward the protest participants, but that part was cut out of the video by the prosecution.

“The prosecution cut out the footage where a law enforcement officer was likely doing something worse than what we just saw. We see a violation of the law by law enforcement officers, abuse of authority, and insults. The video shows that the violent atmosphere was created solely by the state, using law enforcement officers,” Migineishvili stated during the court session.

For reference, during the protest rallies near the Parliament, 11 individuals were detained on charges of participating in group violence.

The detained individuals—Andro Chichinadze, Onise Tskhadadze, Jano Archaia, Ruslan Sivakov, Luka Jabua, Guram Mirtskhlava, Valerian Tetrashvili, Giorgi Terishvili, Irakli Kerashvili, Revaz Kiknadze, and Sergei Kukharchuk—were charged under Article 225, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which pertains to participation in group violence.

This offense carries a penalty of imprisonment ranging from 4 to 6 years.