In Georgia, the ex-director of Rustavi-2 was charged for causing monetary damage to TV

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia charged the former general director of the Georgian television channel Rustavi-2 to Nick Hvairamia for the intentional application of cash damage in the amount of more than 6 million Lari (more than $ 2 million). This was announced at a briefing by the prosecutor Amiran Guluashvili, who is quoted by TASS.

"A decision was made on the prosecution of Nicky Gvaray of a crime under Article 220 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which implies the use of leading or representative powers against the legitimate interests of the organization in order to extract benefits or advantages for themselves or other persons, which resulted in significant damage.

In particular, the investigation found that due to the abuse of leading or representative powers, Nicky Gvaray, the broadcasting company Rustavi-2 did not receive more than 6 million Lari, which due to which significant damage was caused.

In addition, the National Bureau of Judicial Expertise of Georgia failed to prove the authenticity of the signature of the businessman, the owner of the Rustavi-2 television channel Kibara Halvashi on a document in which the ex-Minister of Defense Irakli Distribvili claims that the television channel actually belongs to him. This was announced by the associate of Zaashvili in the party "The winning Georgia", the ex-head of the Supreme Court, Konstantin Kemularia.

The document in question, according to the ex-minister, was drawn up in 2010. Okabashvili claims that back in 2004, when the TV channel was first designed for halvashi, he himself was the real owner, and Halvashi was his nominated person owning the ownership of the television company. According to the terms of the contract, in the event of a violation of Halvashi, Okhaashvili should pay $ 7 million. Halvashi handed over a sample of his signature for verification at the end of July.

However, according to Kemularia, the conclusion on the examination of the signature was made very superficially and allows us to make a categorical conclusion that the signature does not belong to Halvashi. Kemularia said that the authorities are doing everything in order to “take the TV channel” and are not interested in restoring justice. Distribvili himself was currently arrested in the case of riots at a rally in Tbilisi near the parliament building on June 20-21.

The lawsuit around the Rustavi-2 television channel lasts since 2015. Back in August 2015, the former owner of the Halvashi television channel filed a lawsuit in the Tbilisi City Court, which indicated that in 2006 (at the time of the presidency of Mikhail Saakashvili) he was forced to give in to the television channel in favor of people close to the authorities. In November 2015, the Tbilisi City Court satisfied the lawsuit of Halvashi.

After that, the owners of Rustavi-2 challenged the decision of the court of first instance in the Court of Appeal, which on June 10, 2016 upheld the decision of the Tbilisi City Court on the transfer of the Halvashi channel. In the same year, the leadership of the channel filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of Georgia, which in March 2017 also upheld the decision of the two previous instances. Rustavi-2 lawyers stated at the same time that they intend to appeal the decision of the Supreme Court of Georgia in Strasbourg. While the case was considered in the courts, the leadership of the channel stated that the Halvashi businessman was standing for the authorities who want to close an independent television channel.

The story of the document surfaced after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) published a decision on July 18, which states that he did not reveal violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Rustavi-2 case. Among other things, the court lifted the temporary restriction on the decision of the Supreme Court of Georgia in 2017, according to which the television company had to completely move to Halvashi.

After Halvashi, who owned them in 2004-2006, departed, Okhaashvili said that he himself was the real owner of Rustavi-2, and with the help of this document he tried to prove his case. Halvashi initially said that the signature on the document was forged.