The Supreme Court upheld the verdict in the case of Nika Gvaramia, the general director of the Mtavari Arkhi TV channel. According to the network, the court dismissed the cassation appeals of both Gvaramia’s defense and the prosecutor’s office as inadmissible.
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“As of today, Nika Gvaramia has been found guilty on two counts in all three instances of court and has been sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison.
There was nothing surprising in this decision, everybody knows that Nika Gvaramia’s case is politically driven, he is a victim of political persecution, and we did not expect anything else from the court,” told Mtavari Arkhi one of Gvaramia’s lawyers, Keto Chomakhashvili.
Nika Gvaramia’s case was to be considered by a panel of judges (Levan Tevzadze, Merab Gabinashvili, and Nino Sandodze) of the Supreme Court. According to his lawyers, the deadline for announcing the final verdict expires on June 22.
On November 2, 2022, the judicial panel of the Tbilisi Court of Appeals, consisting of judges Merab Jorbenadze, Lavrenti Maglakelidze, and David Mamiseishvili, upheld Gvaramia’s sentence of 3.6-year imprisonment. However, the appellate court partially changed the verdict of the first instance.
In particular, Nika Gvaramia was arrested for using a car belonging to the Rustavi 2 network for personal purposes (abuse of power), because for the charge on the second court - causing 6,763,509 GEL of damages to Rustavi 2, by the verdict of May 16, 2022, of the Tbilisi City Court, he was handed a 50 thousand GEL fine. The Court of Appeals imposed a prison sentence on this court as well.
“The arrest of Nika Gvaramia endangers the clear choice of Georgian people and the declared goals of Georgia’s leaders – of a safer, democratic, and European future,” this is how the US embassy in Georgia responded to the appellate court’s verdict in the Gvaramia case.
European officials, as well as local and international human rights organizations, are calling on the President of Georgia to pardon Nika Gvaramia.
“I accept full responsibility and will take action when I reach a decision, whether to do so or not. But the less pressure from the outside, the better the chances for pardon”, stated Zourabichvili a few days ago in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.
