Patarkatsishvili family to sue Georgian Government

The family of late Georgian businessman and Presidential candidate Badri Patarkatsishvili is going to sue the Georgian Government in the international court for the “expropriation of the shares of Imedi TV and Mtatsminda Park,” its advocate Lord Goldsmith said on Wednesday.

As proof of this, Goldsmith presented, as he said, a “first hand witness” of what happened to Imedi TV, its former co-owner Gogi Jaoshvili. Jaoshvili said Joseph Kay, the current owner of the TV company, had taken the shares in Imedi by force with the help of the Georgian Government and not “after paying the money,” as claimed by Joseph Kay.

He said Kay asked to meet him shortly after Patarkatsishvili’s death and showed him a copy of the document saying that Kay had power of attorney to manage Patarkatsishvili’s assets. He said Kay took him to a notary’s office, where he saw people from the law enforcement agencies around the building. Jaoshvili said he had declined to sell his shares because he had no right to do so as he had to “agree with the other co-owners.” He said he only signed the agreement to sell his shares after the law enforcers intervened and brought him documents about unfreezing Imedi assets, which had been frozen since January 2008 when Badri Patarkatsishvili was charged with attempting to overthrow the Government.

In addition Jaoshvili claimed that the same day he was taken to the Financial Police office. He said the authorities there demanded that he voluntarily resign from the post of Head of the Supervisory Board of Imedi TV. Jaoshvili said he signed the papers after psychological pressure from the people at the Financial Police. Jaoshvili would not reveal the names of those involved.

Georgian officials declined to comment on the issue, saying that first the Patarkatsishvili family should name the people from the Financial Police who allegedly applied this pressure. Joseph Kay’s lawyer did not answer repeated calls from The Messenger.