The Telavi District Court has ordered Malkhaz Machalikashvili to pay a fine of 1,000 lari (approximately $380) for an offensive comment directed at Bidzina Ivanishvili, made in a public space.
Machalikashvili was not present at the court hearing. He had previously been fined for a similar offense. On that occasion, the court ordered him to pay 2,000 lari for a public offensive remark directed at Irakli Chimakadze, Deputy Director of the Central Criminal Police Department.
Malkhaz Machalikashvili is the father of Temirlan Machalikashvili, a teenager fatally shot by special forces during a counter-terrorism operation in the Pankisi Gorge. Following his son’s death, he became an active figure in the country’s protest movement.