Lekso Svimonishvili, the defense attorney representing businessman and animal welfare advocate Tamaz Elizbarashvili, has released video footage of an incident at the Skhva restaurant that led to criminal charges against his client.
According to the attorney, the footage demonstrates that Elizbarashvili was not the initiator of the confrontation.
The lawyer told the Netgazeti news outlet that although the prosecution had submitted these recordings as part of the case file, the agency chose not to make them publicly available.
As Svimonishvili explained, the prosecutor’s office released only the final moments of the altercation, which show Tamaz Elizbarashvili returning. In the defense counsel’s view, this was done to sway public opinion by creating the impression that Elizbarashvili was behaving aggressively and had returned with the intention of making threats or carrying out an assault.
The lawyer noted that the incident was provoked by one of the victims, Shalva Kuchashvili, and the individuals accompanying him. According to the attorney, Kuchashvili aggressively confronted Elizbarashvili, threatening that if he did not apologize, he would be “held to account” at another time and place.
“Tamaz Elizbarashvili often travels around the city accompanied by his wife and young children. He did not want this dispute to remain unresolved and lead to future confrontations in front of his children. That is precisely why he went back—to settle the conflict,” emphasized Lekso Svimonishvili.
The lawyer drew particular attention to a portion of the recording showing Shalva Kuchashvili attempting to push his way into the restroom where Elizbarashvili was, only to be held back and led away by his own companions. According to Svimonishvili, this proves that it was Kuchashvili who was displaying aggression, prompting his associates to intervene and restrain him.
“If Tamaz Elizbarashvili had been the aggressor, those individuals would have pulled away Tamaz Elizbarashvili, not [Kuchashvili]. But in the judgment of his own friends, it was [Kuchashvili] who had to be removed, because he was the one acting aggressively.”
In addition, the defense addressed prior public statements and testimony by Shalva Kuchashvili, who claimed he had approached Elizbarashvili only twice (once to ask a question and a second time to show a screenshot). Lekso Svimonishvili asserted that the newly disclosed footage disproves this claim:
“Unfortunately, the cameras do not capture audio, but the footage clearly shows Shalva Kuchashvili approaching Tamaz Elizbarashvili four times without any screenshot in hand; he aggressively advances toward him, which his own friends notice before stepping in to pull him away,” the lawyer stated.
