Head of the Psychologists’ Development Research Centre ready to post bail on Nika Melia’s behalf
By Veronika Malinboym
Wednesday, March 31
“I have done a lot of work before I came to this decision. For the whole night [they] were discussing ‘whose’ person I am, they were calling back and forth. I am a psychologist, can’t a psychologist have a political stance? I was testing the system. Nika Melia, and any other politician, is, first of all, a citizen of Georgia, which is why I feel sympathetic towards him. I can see that the ongoing process is not very effective, and the country is faced with the risk of losing rationality”, Bogveli explained.
Nika Melia’s lawyer Giorgi Kondahishvili, in turn, said that Bogveli’s decision to pay the bail is nothing but a 'performance' staged by the government:
“Today, the United National Movement office received a letter from the head of Georgia’s Psychologists’ Development Research Centre Besik Bogveli, in which he stated that the organization in general, and Bogveli personally, is eager to pay the bail of ?40,000 on Nika Melia’s behalf. I would like to reinstate that Melia’s position on the matter has not changed, and he considers it unacceptable. Moreover, what we are witnessing right now is nothing but a performance staged by the government”, Kondahishvili said.
Kondahishvili added that posting bail on Melia’s behalf is neither technically nor legally possible:
“We are asking the members of the Georgian Dream party – when you say that Nika Melua can post the bail and get out of prison, do you have any specific legal foundation based on which it can be done?”
Nika Melia was arrested on February 23 earlier this year for refusing to pay ?40,000 of ?70,000 of his bail, and for violating the conditions of his bail on which he was released in June 2020, following his arrest on charges of inciting violence during the June 2019 protests.