The Tbilisi City Court will consider today whether to impose a preventive measure against businessman Tamaz Elizbarashvili. The Prosecutor’s Office is seeking his detention, while the defense disagrees.

As lawyer Lekso Svimonishvili told journalists, he believes his client, Tamaz Elizbarashvili, should not be subjected to any preventive measure at all. However, as an alternative, the defense will offer the court bail.

Lekso Svimonishvili says that the basis for the official investigation against Tamaz Elizbarashvili was an operational report submitted to the law enforcement agency. According to the lawyer, Tamaz Elizbarashvili does not admit to the charges brought against him, which involve threats to take a person’s life and cause injury.

“If the Prosecutor’s Office were certain that Tamaz Elizbarashvili had a weapon, they would have charged him with illegal possession or carrying of a firearm. Any doubts should be resolved in favor of the defendant.

“There are seven people listed as victims in the case. The Prosecutor’s Office is the prosecution and released footage that it itself believed would strengthen the charges brought against him. However, the public saw that there is nothing unlawful in this footage. I also recently watched the footage released by the Prosecutor’s Office, in which Tamaz Elizbarashvili allegedly threatens someone with a weapon. The weapon is not visible anywhere, and not a single witness confirms that Tamaz Elizbarashvili had a firearm with him,” the lawyer said.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia has charged Tamaz Elizbarashvili with making threats. According to the investigation, on August 30 of this year, a verbal altercation took place between Elizbarashvili and one of the victims at a restaurant in Tbilisi over a comment posted on social media. According to the agency, Elizbarashvili threatened the victims with killing them and causing them bodily harm. Later, allegedly intending to carry out the threat, he returned to the location armed and attempted to enter the restaurant.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, on August 31, the defendant also posted a video statement on social media in which he continued making threats.