On January 22, the Tbilisi City Court, presided over by Judge Irakli Khuskivadze, held another hearing in one of the October 4 cases involving ten defendants and kept the in detention.
This group of defendants includes the so-called “members of the organizing committee”: Paata Burchuladze, Murtaz Zodelava, Irakli Nadiradze, Paata Manjgaladze, and Lasha Beridze, as well as Tornike Mchedlishvili, Nika Gventsadze, Irakli Chkhvirkia, Irakli Shaishmelashvili, and Guri Zhvania. Paata Burchuladze did not attend the hearing.
The court conducted a mandatory review of the preventive measure imposed on the defendants – pretrial detention – and upheld detention for all of them. Irakli Shaishmelashvili is in hiding, and pretrial detention has been imposed on him in absentia.
The prosecution reiterated its standard position, arguing that there is a risk of the defendants absconding, destroying evidence, or committing new crimes. The court agreed with this assessment and dismissed the arguments of the defendants and their lawyers, including motions to release the defendants on bail pending the verdict.
Judge Irakli Khuskivadze stated that at this stage he is not assessing whether the defendants committed or did not commit the alleged crimes. From a legal standpoint, he noted, the court is not in a position to engage in such an assessment at this phase of the proceedings, and therefore the defendants remain in custody. No new circumstances have been identified that would justify changing the preventive measure imposed on them.
In another October 4 case, On January 20, Judge Tamar Mchedlishvili ruled to keep 11 defendants detained.
