TBILISI, October 8 – The Tbilisi City Court on Wednesday held a hearing for four people detained during the unrest that followed the October 4 rally in the Georgian capital.
The defendants, Tornike Mchedlishvili, Abo Naveriani, Eva Shashviashvili, and Davit Sturua, appeared before Judge Lela Maridashvili, who will decide whether to keep them in pre-trial detention.
At the start of the session, defense lawyers requested the judge’s recusal, arguing that they had no expectation she would deliver an impartial ruling. The motion was rejected. The lawyers noted that the same judge had earlier ordered pre-trial detention for five organizers of the October 4 rally, including opera singer Paata Burchuladze, former chief prosecutor Murtaz Zodelava, opposition politician Irakli Nadiradze, Strategy Builder party member Paata Manjgaladze, and Colonel Lasha Beridze.
Prosecutors are seeking the strictest preventive measure, imprisonment, for all four defendants. The defense is asking the court to release them on bail instead.
The charges stem from the violent clashes outside the presidential residence on Atoneli Street, where a rally billed as a “peaceful revolution” turned chaotic on the evening of October 4. According to the Interior Ministry, the four are being investigated under Articles 317, 222, 225, and 187 of Georgia’s Criminal Code, which cover incitement to overthrow the constitutional order, unlawful seizure of state property, organizing group violence, and property damage.
Update 18:30 Tbilisi time:
Tbilisi City Court has ruled that the four mentioned protesters will remain in pre-trial detention. At today’s hearing, prosecutors requested detention as the strictest preventive measure, while defense lawyers sought release on bail. Judge Lela Maridashvili denied a defense motion for her recusal, despite objections that she had also presided over the case of the five arrested organizers of the same rally.
Prosecutor Tamar Bezhuashvili told the court that Mchedlishvili “mercilessly swung a stick and assaulted police officers,” claiming that video footage shows him damaging the fence around the president’s administration building.
Mchedlishvili, however, denied committing violence, telling the court that he only intervened to help the injured. “My interest was not to riot or commit violence,” he said. “I acted to save someone’s life. First I helped an activist, and later a police officer.”
The four are among 23 people detained in connection with the October 4 clashes near the presidential residence, of whom five are accused of organizing the protest. Authorities say three additional suspects remain at large.
