Founder of Georgian opposition channel Nika Gvaramia remains in prison
Nika Gvaramia to remain in prison
The Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Tbilisi City Court, finding Nika Gvaramia, founder of Georgia’s main opposition TV channel Mtavari Arkhi, guilty. He shall thus remain in prison, and his sentence to three years and six months shall be served.
The opposition calls the the Court of Appeal decision politically motivated and calls on Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili to pardon Gvaramia.
“Nika’s freedom is not only Nika’s freedom. This is very important for Georgia’s European integration, including the fulfillment of the 12 points. It directly says that the freedom of Gvaramia is important for the overall independence of the media. And although I know Nika’s attitude to this issue, I want to call on the President of Georgia to take responsibility for European integration and release Nika Gvaramia,” Khatia Dekanoidze, chairman of the parliamentary faction of the United National Movement party, said.
The fact that the general director of Mtavari Arkhi was left in prison confirms once again that the country is run by one person,” Mamuka Khazaradze, chairman of another opposition party, Lelo, said in response.
He believes that “this injustice can only be corrected by the president by an act of pardon.”
“She [Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili] should stand above her own grievances and forget, for the sake of the interests of society, about the criticism made of her by Nika Gvaramia. The war with the Soviet prosecutor’s office and the court headed by Bidzina [Ivanishvili – Georgian oligarch] must end!” Khazaradze writes on Facebook.
The way out of this situation lies in the unity of the opposition, Giorgi Vashadze, head of the Strategy Agmashenebeli party, says:
“Do we want Gvaramia to be free? Unity! Do we want Saakashvili to be free? Unity! Do we want to get EU candidate status? Unity! Until we become one, we will not get rid of illusions.”
According to Vashadze, if the authorities do not see a unified opposition and the power of the people, Gvaramia will not be pardoned.
“There will be no pardon, no other decision until the authorities see the great power of the unity of the people … Our plan is unity. We will stand together. We will win! Gvaramia will be released only if we are united,” Vashadze said.
The decision of the Tbilisi Court of Appeal in the Gvaramia case is not only directed against freedom of speech, it opens the way for any racketeering by the court against business, opposition politician Gigi Ugulava believes.
He addressed representatives of private business with a warning that the “Gvaramia case” could also affect them, since a judicial precedent had thus been created.
“Whether you are the director of a factory, a pharmacy, a store or television, first of all you are the owner of an ordinary LLC. Business is business. Why does Georgian business think that the “Gvaramia case” will not affect them? A legal precedent has been set. Tomorrow someone’s bakery or shop will interfere, and the matter has already been decided.”
On May 16 Nika Gvaramia was formally arrested in a courtroom in Tbilisi for allegedly using a company car for family needs.
Independent experts, representatives of public organizations, and politicians consider Gvaramia’s arrest to be politically motivated.
The US Embassy strongly criticized the court’s decision. “The disturbing pattern of selective investigations and prosecutions targeting those in opposition to the current government undermines the public’s confidence in the police, prosecution, the courts, and the government itself”, the embassy said in a statement.
Nika Gvaramia to remain in prison
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What are they arguing about Nika Gvaramia?
Gvaramia was charged with several episodes. All of them related to the period of work of Gvaramia as the director of Rustavi-2 in 2014-2019.
The prosecution alleged that Gvaramia misused property rights, falsified documents, laundered money, and also participated in commercial bribery while being the general director of Rustavi 2.
In particular, according to the prosecution, Gvaramia unfairly disposed of the right to place commercial advertising on the channel – he sold this right to Inter Media Plus LLC at a reduced price, and in return received two apartments from this company, which he allegedly tried to illegally legalize. (According to the prosecution, Gvaramia signed an illegal loan agreement, then sold these apartments and thus laundered money).
According to the prosecutor’s office, for all this, Gvaramia used fake documents, as well as a seal, stamp and forms.
As a result, the court found Gvaramia guilty on two counts:
According to the first, in 2015, Gvaramia mishandled the right to place advertising on the channel and, together with the financial director of the company, Kakha Damenia, embezzled six million 763 thousand 509 lari [about $2.4 million]. For this episode, Gvaramia and Damenia were fined 50,000 lari [about $18,000] in favor of the country’s budget.
The episode on which Gvaramia was arrested is the so-called car episode. As director of the TV company Rustavi 2, Gvaramia and his family used a car owned by the TV company. We are talking about a car worth 76,000 euros [about 232,201 lari], which was registered to Proesco Media LLC in exchange for the use of advertising time on the Rustavi-2 TV channel.
