The police arrested Lazare Grigoriadis on March 29, 2023. According to the prosecutor’s office, Grigoriadis fired twice at the employees of the Special Tasks Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the protests against the Russian law, using a Molotov cocktail.

Grigoriadis was charged under the second part of Article 353 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (infringement on the health of a police officer in connection with his official activities) and the second part of Article 187, subsection “A” (destruction of another’s property by setting fire), which carries a punishment of 7 to 11 years of imprisonment.

The arrest of 21-year-old Lazare Grigoriadis by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the smear campaign against him suggest that the authorities deliberately chose him as the first target of political justice. Members of the ruling party considered Lazare a convenient target for discrediting because of his different image, and the public could easily be convinced of his guilt.

Government propagandist media spread a lot of false information about the young people participating in the March protests, while representatives of the ruling party actively labeled the young protesters on Rustaveli Avenue as “Satanists,” “anarchists,” and “extremists.” After summoning the law, the system found a scapegoat after three weeks of work.

Although “Georgian Dream” worked hard to discredit Lazare and create his image as an extremist, using him as a tool for their own political goals, the accusations lacked solid evidence. They were entirely based on false police testimony.

Tornike Akofashvili, another participant in the protests against the “Russian law,” was arrested a few weeks before Lazare and, soon after, on March 10, was released from the courtroom on a bail of 3,000 GEL. The video evidence, which the prosecutor’s office used to try to prove his guilt, was filmed by the propaganda media “Postv” and only showed Tornike hitting the shield of the special forces with a rubber band.