Appeals Court rejects Rustavi 2 Ex-Director General’s appeal
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, August 16
Tbilisi Court of Appeals recognized the appeal of Rustavi 2 Ex-Director Nika Gvaramia's lawyer, Dimitri Sadzaglishvili, on the revocation of the preventive measure imposed on Gvaramia, unacceptable for breach of the statutory time-limit for appeal.
The statement released by the Court reads that the Investigative Panel of the Court of Appeals examined the complaint and it found that the ruling about Nika Gvaramia was rendered by the Tbilisi City Court on August 11, 2019 at 01:30, adding the 48-hour deadline for appeals under Article 207 of the Criminal Procedure Code expired 16 hours before the court verdict was appealed by Gvaramia and his lawyer.
“A lawsuit was filed in Tbilisi City Court by Dimitri Sadzaglishvili, a lawyer representing Gvaramia's interests, at 17:39 pm August 13, 2019, 16 hours later a 48-hour deadline expired,” said the Court.
Sadzaglishvili claims that the Court of Appeal erroneously calculates the 48-hour deadline for the appeal to be rendered after the verdict was announced and that deadline must be counted after the reasoned decision was delivered to the sides. According to the lawyer, his ruling was delivered on the second day of the court hearing in the evening, and the deadline for appeal was not actually violated.
“The countdown begins when the sides receive the verdict and not when it is delivered. Therefore, the calculations of the Appeals Court are wrong. However, we were not surprised that they refused to accept our complained,” Sadzaglishvili said.
Tbilisi City Court has ordered GEL 40,000 bail for Rustavi 2 TV former Director-General, Nika Gvaramia, and prohibited him from leaving the country without notifying the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia (POG).
The Court made the decision on August 11 and gave Gvaramia one month to pay the bail.
Gvaramia was charged by the POG for an offense under Article 220 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which pertains to the use of managerial and representational powers in an enterprise against the legitimate interest of the enterprise, for the purpose of getting profit for others, which caused significant damage.
The POG said that on January 16, 2015, Gvaramia, as the director general of Rustavi 2, signed an agreement on behalf of the TV channel with Inter Media Plus, owned by his friends, adding the agreement allowed the company to place commercial advertisements on Rustavi 2 for free.
The agency noted as a result, in 2015, Rustavi 2 faced 7,377,230 GEL of declared damage, whereas Inter Media Plus received 8,690,664 GEL of profit. It was asking for GEL 80,000 bail for Gvaramia, but the judge decided to satisfy the request partially.
Gvaramia says he is innocent, adding the charges against him were raised due to his critical attitude towards the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party founder and chair Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is often referred as the “informal ruler” of the country.
Regarding the decision of the Appeals Court, Gvaramia said he was expecting such a development of the case.
“I had no illusion that it [Appeals Court] would consider this case. These existing materials are part of my political-persecution case,” he added.
Ex-Director General of Rustavi 2 also officially declared that he will not pay the bail, imposed by Tbilisi City Court.
“I am ready if they punish me for the violation of the ruling. I will obey whatever measure they impose on me for that. They can arrest me if they want,” he stressed.
Public Defender of Georgia, Nino Lomjaria met Gvaramia and his lawyer regarding the case. She says there is not enough proof against Gvaramia.
“This is a very difficult legal case. I think it is very important that there is adequate evidence, reasoned argument, that this particular dispute is a matter of criminal jurisdiction. The prosecution should provide more evidence in this regard,” she said.
Several days ago, NGOs also released a statement, saying there are doubts the case is politically-motivated.
