The police officers affected by March 7-8 protests, with the support of the legal department of the Ministry, appealed to the President of Georgia to refrain from pardoning Lazare Grigoriadis.
The authors of the appeal are those officers who, during the protests of March 7-8, 2023, received various severe body injuries, including burns, while performing official duties.
As mentioned in the statement, the law enforcers made the decision to appeal to the president after the information was spread on a number of occasions that the family members of Lazare Grigoriadis and human rights defenders appealed to Salome Zurabishvili for his pardon.
The affected police officers believe that pardoning an individual who attacked them will create a sense in the society that the attack on the defenders of public order will remain unpunished.
Law enforcement officers note that the pardon may refer to the fact of violence committed by Lazare Grigoriadis against a family member, however, they believe that this will not be an ordinary act of pardon, but will be a message to the public that the state policy regarding the facts of assault against police, violence and domestic crimes is lenient.
The mentioned action will undermine the effectiveness of the fight against such category of crimes and the efforts made by state institutions in this regard.
The employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia cite the fact that in 2019, the President of Georgia pardoned an individual convicted of the murder of 22-year-old policeman, Tarash Mukbaniani, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the court and left penitentiary facility in 5 years.
