Turmoil around Rustavi 2 continues, ex-official says the channel is his
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, July 22
Turmoil around Georgia’s one of the top private broadcasters Rustavi2 continues after 100 percent of the company shares were re-granted to its former owner Kibar Khalvashi by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on July 18.
Now former Defence Minister, who currently chairs an opposition party Victorious Georgia Irakli Okruashvili, says that he will sue against Khalvashi in the court “to return the channel he bought in 2004.”
Okruashvili says that Khalvashi was his representative in the purchase deal and the latter confirms that Okruashvili is the real owner of the channel in the document signed in 2010 in Germany.
Khalvashi’s lawyer Paata Salia says that the document is fake.
Okruashvili addressed Tbilisi City Court last Friday to freeze the shares of Rustavi 2, stating that he will file a lawsuit against his former friend this week.
Rustavi 2 has already been registered in the name of Khalvashi and Salia was appointed as a director-general of the channel.
The procedures took place before Rustavi 2 appealed the verdict to the Grand chamber of the ECHR.
The opposition had urged the Justice Ministry not to register the channel shares in Khalvashi’s name before the Grand Chamber announced its verdict, however, the appeal was cited as “unlawful,” by the government members.
Salia, who replaced Nika Gvaramia in the role, says that the editorial policy of Rustavi 2 will remain the same. However, Rustavi 2 staff do not believe in the promise.
Salia also said that there is a “financial crisis” in the channel and announced the audit check shortly.
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze said that the ECHR’s verdict proved that justice was neglected by the members of the United National Movement leadership, “who illegally seized the channel.”
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili stated that the verdict confirmed the impartiality of the Georgian court.
Members of the United National Movement opposition say that they respect the European court, “but the verdict fails to reflect the Georgian reality.”
“The channel is now occupied by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili [founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party],” they say, adding that they will make the channel free after winning the 2020 parliamentary elections.
Okruashvili served as Defence Minister under the United National Movement between 2004 and 2006. In 2006, he was dismissed [the year when the channel was seized from Khalvashi] and a bit later, in 2007, he became the opposition of then-President Mikheil Saakashvili.
In 2007 Okruashvili was detained on corruption charges and was soon allowed to leave the country. He lived in France until the winter of 2012, returning to Georgia after the Georgian Dream defeated the United National Movement in October 2012.
Rustavi 2 has changed owners more than 20 times since its establishment in 1994 by Jarji Akimidze, David Dvali, and Erosi Kitsmarishvili.
Kitsmarishvili is deceased. Akimidze and Dvali say that the channel was illegally seized from them in 2004, demanding the property back.
Experts ask on how Okriashvili managed to buy the channel in 2004.
Tbilisi Supreme Court returned 100 percent of shares to Khalvashi in 2017, after two years he addressed the Georgian court with the demand.
However, shortly after the verdict was announced, Rustavi 2 addressed the ECHR. The European Court imposed a temporary ban on the enforcement of the Supreme Court’s verdict until it decided on the case.
Last week the ECHR upheld the verdicts of the Georgian courts and allowed the enforcement of the verdict of the Georgian Supreme Court on Rustavi 2.
