On July 11, the Telavi District Court has sentenced Mikheil Gremelashvili, deputy chairman of the Alliance of Patriots faction at the Telavi Municipality Council (Sakrebulo), to pretrial detention on charges of gender discrimination and threats against his family members, as well as illegal purchase and storage of firearms and ammunition.
The charges brought by the Prosecutor’s Office involved domestic violence, threat, and illegal purchase and storage of firearms. Gremelashvili faces imprisonment from three to six years, the Prosecutor’s Office reported.
Police detained Gremelashvili on July 8. The Georgian Interior Ministry reported that he “threatened his spouse and children with liquidation by demonstrating a firearm, as well as physically abused them.”
According to the same report, during the search activities carried out in Gremelashvili’s apartment, police seized unregistered Kalashnikov rifle.
According to Telavi Municipality Council, Mikheil Gremelashvili became a member of the Sakrebulo as the ruling Georgian Dream party’s majoritarian MP after winning local elections in the village of Shalauri. But in 2018, he quit the ruling party and set up the Alliance of Patriots faction together with two other deputies.
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