Girogi Rurua has been found guilty
By Khatia Bzhalava
Friday, July 31
On July 30th, a shareholder of Mtavari Arkhi( Main Channel) Giorgi Rurua was sentenced to four years imprisonment. He was arrested on November 18th, 2019, under the charges of illegal purchase-storage-carrying of a weapon. Rurua pleads not guilty and considers himself as a political inmate.
According to the Tbilisi City Court, the verdict was passed "based on incontrovertible pieces of evidence," in particular, according to test?monies of the witnesses, a search of the accused and his car, protocols of hand and saliva samples taken for expert studies and expert conclusions presented in the case.
As the prosecutor lawyer of the case Vasil Samkharadze stated to the journalists, the court made the right decision relying on the evidence presented by the prosecution. "This is the only logical decision," he said. However, defense lawyer Dimitri Sadzaglishvili said that "there was no evidence proving the guilt of my client." Another defense lawyer of Rurua, Levan Samushia called this case "a classical example of how to detain a person illegally.”
Even though Sadzaglishvili believes the Court in Georgia is influenced by the government and has no hopes that the verdict will be changed, the defendant is still going to complain to the Tbilisi Court of Appeals.
Rurua's case has been a subject of controversy for a while now. Members of the opposition parties demand his release as they consider him as a political prisoner and according to the March 8th Agreement, the government should release all the political inmates.
Many of the foreign politicians share opposition's opinion and have called on the government to release Rurua as it happened in the cases of Giga Bokeria and Irakli Okruashvili. One of the recent is a statement of the EU Parliament member, Anna Fotyga, who calls on the president of Georgia to pardon inmate Rurua.
“Many friends of Georgia view the arrest and now sentencing of media owner Giorgi Rurua as political. I encourage the President of Georgia to use her powers as she did with other figures who were part of the March 8th Agreement. That would improve the climate in the run-up to elections,” reads Fotyga's statement.
