Opposition figure Elisashvili faces court amid political persecution allegations

One of the leaders of the Strong Georgia coalition, Aleko Elisashvili, on Tuesday appeared in Tbilisi City Court, where he faces accusations of politically motivated persecution.

Speaking before the hearing, Elisashvili dismissed the charges against him as baseless and suggested that the judiciary was being influenced by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

“Today, there will be a substantive hearing of my case,” Elisashvili told reporters. “I don’t know if they will arrest me or not, but everything depends on the judge’s mood and the instructions from Georgian Dream”, he claimed.

Elisashvili has been charged under the article that relates to the persecution of an individual for political reasons, involving violence. If convicted, he could face up to three years in prison. However, he has been released on bail of 4,000 GEL ahead of the trial.

The case stems from an incident on December 2, when Elisashvili allegedly verbally and physically assaulted Ali Babaev, Chairman of the Azerbaijani National Congress and co-founder of the Georgian Dream Democratic Georgia party. The altercation reportedly took place near Kostava Street in Tbilisi.

In addition to his court case, Elisashvili raised concerns about the handling of his medical records by the Vivamedi Tbilisi clinic. He claimed that after his arrest, he was diagnosed with a broken rib – an injury that was initially denied by the clinic.

“When I first had an X-ray, they found nothing wrong. A month and a half later, it turned out I had a broken rib,” he said. “Vivamedi concealed this, and when I exposed it, the director publicly displayed my X-ray, violating my personal data rights.”

Elisashvili took the matter to the Personal Data Protection Service, which found the clinic and its director, Nino Nadiradze, guilty of breaching privacy laws. The agency ordered the removal of his medical image from social media.