Former Georgian Interior Ministry official Lasha Shergelashvili, who served as the head of the Armaments Department of the Special Operations Directorate, said on Formula TV that a banned substance was used to suppress a protest outside the Central Election Commission in 2020. When asked if he had any suspicions, he replied that he "knew for sure that it was used" as he was there at the time.
The long sentences in the colony, awarded to three natives of Dagestan, were provoked by a lot of media hype and a negative reaction against the accused. This was stated by the lawyer of one of them, Alexander Lopin. According to him, the video with the beating spread on the Internet, loud statements of users about «visitors» and publications in the press caused the case to be re-qualified for a more serious article and a harsh sentence.
Recall that last year three natives of Dagestan, who beat a passenger in a train car on the Arbat-Pokrovsky line of the Moscow metro after he stood up for a girl, received from 8.5 to 12 years of colony. The decision was made by the Moscow Izmailovsky Court. Magamali Hanmagomedov received 12 years of rigorous regime, Ibrahim Musalaev - 11 years, Hasan Zalibekov - 8.5 years. The defense filed a complaint against the sentence. It stated that the investigation did not correspond to the actual circumstances of the incident.